Wright Chat

does anyone have any photos of the j. willis hughes house, also called "fountainhead"? storrer describes the lamberson house, which i recently purchased, as the "smaller twin" of the hughes house, which also incorporates the square grid meeting 30 60 120 angles. i am trying to put lamberson in context.

Slim pickin's context-wise. Hughes was redrawn on a parallelogram before construction. It's much bigger, made of poured concrete with board and batten (of a very interesting cross-section) with a copper roof. The only place I have seen Hughes is in the December 1982 issue of Fine Homebuilding, in which Tom Snyder did an extensive article on restoration. The relationship between the two was all but lost once the grid was altered.

Here's something:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nataliemay ... 6/sizes/l/

According to this thread from PrairieMod.com, the book "Frank Lloyd Wright Mid-Century Modern" has a section on Hughes (about 2/3 down the page, listed as #16 under Ed Jarolin's response).


David

And if you don't happen to already have it, you can find good, basic information as well as the house plan layout in Storrer's The Frank Lloyd Wright Companion.


David

Arghh...so you bought the lamberson house, spoiling my time-share dream. Are you really going to live in Oskaloosa?

Deke

Deke wrote:Arghh...so you bought the lamberson house, spoiling my time-share dream. Are you really going to live in Oskaloosa?

Deke

i will try to spend some of my time there, it's actually a nice sort of "music man" small iowa town complete with the gazebo band stand positioned dead center of the town square. the neighborhood is lovely with rolling hills, beautiful bluegrass lawns and mature oaks. there is one more wright house a block away, the alsop house, and a few architect designed houses sprinkled around the neighborhood.
i feel lucky...

Here are the Lamberson and Hughes plans, albeit at very different scale. The Lamberson square and the Hughes rhombus both have 48" sides.

Note that both plans are oriented identically to the sun, though they "drew differently," perhaps for reasons of graphic economy.


Both illustrations from W A Storrer.

peterm, what do you think is the internal (or interior) purpose of the northernmost full-height brick element -- the elongated half-hexagonal "pier." (I recognize its vital structural function. . .)

You could stack a lot of firewood there ? Or maybe its for the organ pipes, or the oboe collection, a terrarium or aquarium, or music center -- a mini library, a standup work station or a living-room phone booth ?

There is much about this house that is well-nigh unique. Prospect and refuge are well represented in the plan, from the elevated siting, to the peekaboo kitchen "back door" on the way to the hidden "reveal" of the entrance, to the master "suite" with a view to the approach and its own half-bath tucked into an opposite corner. The plan "moves" around comfortably under its seemingly monolithic roof, affording north and western peeks at the rising landscape behind the house, while gazing out at the eastern and southern prospects (as near as I can tell).


SDR

thanks, sdr-

well, they might not be identical twins, but first cousins at least. the hughes is clearly more intricate and spacious, but they certainly share dna.

SDR wrote:peterm, what do you think is the internal (or interior) purpose of the northernmost full-height brick element -- the elongated half-hexagonal "pier." (I recognize its vital structural function. . .)SDR

the northernmost "pier" in lamberson, houses a "desk and keep" according to the plans. an unfortunate "remuddling" chopped a portion of the original cantilevered desk and this is one of the first limbs which i would like to reattach. there are also shelves which originate here and move along the wall all the way to the built in bench sofa. some of these have been altered as well.

your description of the site is not too far off. unusual for usonians, this house does not completely turn its back on the street, but has a lovely view across a small valley beyond the one lane road.

Is anyone aware of any biographical or other material on J. Willis Hughes. A friend of mine was a school friend of Robard's but did not appear to know much about them. I have checked every resource I can find and have found nothing about Robard or his father or mother. I have done what research I can and have not found when the house might have been sold to the current owner and under what circumstances. Can anyone shed any light or point me to any resources?

Thank you,

Kevin Handy

dfwenigma wrote:Can anyone shed any light or point me to any resources?

Kevin,
The County Assessor will have a history of the houses valuations and its sales records. Most counties no days make this info accessible on the internet.

You might want to check with the Getty Museum in LA to see if they have copies of any correspondence between the original owner and Mr. Wright.

I just got Frank Lloyd Wright Mid Century Modern anyone want to view them I will be happy to get photos

Also for Palli, there are perfs in this home, if you didn't know that if you did sorry for repeating.

They are on the shutters and have some good shots of them in the book.

Will try to get the shots today for you all.

I looked at some of the Hughes-Wright correspondence at the Getty nearly twenty years ago. He states in his first approach that he and his wife are active in the Episcopal church and not much else, as memory serves, of biographical interest. The local papers, and maybe the records of the nearest (at the time) Episcopal church, might tell you more, if you want to go to that much effort.