FLW & His Female Clients

[Wrightgeek]

Here's my best stab at a list of those built projects where the principal client was clearly identified as being a woman. There may be others that I have missed, and there were certainly many commissions involving couples where the lady of the house was the driving force behind the project, but I have not tried to include all of those here.

I'm hoping that this list will provoke conversation and maybe unearth some little-known and/or untold stories of the interactions between FLW and his female clientele over the course of his career.

1. Hillside Home School I
2. Romeo & Juliet Windmill
3. Emma Martin Garage
4. Hillside Home School II
5. Susan Lawrence Dana Residence
6. Lawrence Memorial Library
7. Laura R. Gale Residence
8. Mary M.W. Adams Residence
9. Pettit Mortuary Chapel
10. Grace Fuller Residence
11. Isabel Roberts Residence
12. Aline Barnsdall Complex
13. Alice Millard Residence
14. Isabel Martin Residence
15. Abby Beecher Roberts Residence
16. Rose Pauson Residence
17. Goetsch-Winckler Residence
18. Amy Alpaugh Studio Residence
20. Mrs. Clinton Walker Residence
21. Jorgine Boomer Residence
22. Bachman-Wilson Residence
23. Karen Johnson Residence
24. Guggenheim Museum

[Roderick Grant]

Solomon Guggenheim was not a woman. I suppose you're referring to Hilla Rebay?

[Wrightgeek]

Yes RG, I added the Guggenheim almost as an afterthought with Hilla Rebay in mind.

[Unbrook]

I would add Margaret Weltzheimer to the list. Although the owner is listed as Charles Weltzheimer on the blueprints, it was Mrs. Weltzheimer who was the prime force behind the commisioning of Mr. Wright. In her first letter to Wright she says for twenty years she has wanted to have a house designed by him. As she was a remarried widow, Charles would not have been around when she first discovered Wright's works.

[KevinW]

While it was Maynards scope biz that financed the Buehler house, Katie was driving force behind the program. During one stay at Taliesin West, I was able to view the typed program Katie put together for Wright. There must have been 10 pages of wish list items from her, right down to the number of pairs of shoes she desired storage space for. Under Maynards name, his wish was simply for a workshop.

[Reidy]

Anderton Court Shops in Beverly Hills.

You might add the two Barnsdall guesthouses and several unrealized designs for her, if you're counting these. In that case, Toker says the Kaufman design for Palm Springs was Liliane's, but others say Edgar Jr. Ayn Rand is listed as the client, though she was married at the time.

[Roderick Grant]

One pair that seemed equally dedicated to FLW are Don and Virginia Lovness.

[RonMcCrea]

These are great lists! I would certainly add Queene Ferry Coonley as the client in all but name for both the house and the playhouse, Mamah Cheney in the same category for the Cheney House (and the plan for the Goethe Street townhouse), and Harriet Freeman as the mover for the Freeman House.

Motoko Hani, the first woman journalist in Japan, was the founder of Jiyu Gakuen, the girls' school in Tokyo. Verz Schultz, the "first lady of Marin," was the force behind the Marin County Civic Center.

I would argue that Jane Porter, Wright's sister, was the client for Tanyderi. Wright himself said explicitly that Taliesin I was built for Mamah Borthwick and Taliesin III was built for Olgivanna and Iovanna, and they are determinative in many aspects of these buildings (including the school of architecture). But obviously he built it for himself as well and was wed to it as much as any of the women.

Like the Lovenesses, the Jacobses were full partners in building with Wright.

We should also be talking about Elizabeth Gordon, the editor of House Beautiful, who was a forceful marketer of Wright and helped him create his lines of commercial fabrics and furniture with Schumacher and Henredon.

[FTA]

I would venture to say that Carolyn Price was a driving force behind Hillside in Bartlesville as finally realized. The built house was not what was originally posed. Carolyn had a say in, for example, the size of bedrooms and other aspects of the house itself as well as the landscaping.

[Unbrook]

We can not forget the most important client to FLW--Mrs Cheney. I am reading the book "Frank Lloyd Wright a Fiesole" about Wright in Italy.
Without her we may never have had Taliesin.

[RonMcCrea]

Apropos of that, it's interesting to note that Mamah Borthwick Cheney stopped calling herself Cheney when she joined Wright in Europe, when she was still technically Mrs. Cheney. She signed the guest register at Ellen Key's house in Sweden as Mamah Bouton Borthwick on June 9, 1911. She divorced Cheney two months later without seeing him again, and formally took back her maiden name. She came to Taliesin as Mamah Borthwick.

[Cell Guy]

Mrs. A.W. Gridley House aka Ravine House. Albert W. Gridley died in 1895 in New Orleans. His wife, Libbie (born Harriett Elizabeth Boynton) commissioned Wright to build the house in Batavia, IL.

[jim]

Dorothy Turkel is generally credited as the client on that gem.

[Laurie Virr]

May I suggest that Ina Morris Harper be added to the list?

[Roderick Grant]

Perhaps Francis and Mary Little were equally involved with their houses in Peoria and Deephaven. But it was Elinor Stephenson, their daughter, who tore it down.