Wright A Wrong
[Nathan G. Moore House (1895/1923) Frank Lloyd Wright, architect /Image & Artwork: designslinger]
Frank Lloyd Wright? You must be wrong. Of all the houses Wright designed, this is one of
the least identifiable as the architect's own. The story begins in 1894 with Nathan G. Moore, a wealthy attorney and bank director with a thriving business in downtown Chicago, who chose to live in the then outlying suburb of Oak Park. It just so happened that his neighbor across the street was an architect with an odd looking house by the name of Frank Lloyd Wright. Moore was looking to replace the existing house on his property and Wright was just starting out in his own practice, after having been fired by Louis Sullivan.
[Nathan G. Moore House 1895 and 1923; Moore House, 1923 version /Images & Artwork: designslinger]
Needing the work and the income, Wright took on the project with much regret. Moore
made it very clear that he didn't want one of the architect's new fangled experiments and favored an English-Tudor design. The attorney was an upstanding citizen and did not want to be become the object of ridicule in staid Oak Park. So Wright gave Moore a house that the Prairie School icon grew to hate. Unfortunately for Moore, but somewhat fortunately for Wright, the house nearly burned to the ground in 1922. It was December 22nd and the Moores held a Christmas party in the home. After the family went to bed they were awakened by the smell of smoke and soon the upper floors were engulfed in flames. A third floor fireplace had been lit for the fete, which hadn't been used for a long time, and probably caused the inferno.
[Edward R. Hills House with the Moore House in the background /Image & Artwork: designslinger]
With his house in ruins, Moore turned back to Wright for a rebuild, who by this time
was famous for his architecture and infamous for his personal life. The architect had abandoned his wife and six children and went off with a client's wife in 1909 to Berlin, never to return to his suburban life. The good citizens of Oak Park were scandalized. But that was before Moore had asked the architect to do a remodel of a home in 1900 that sat on a piece of property adjacent to the Tudor house which Moore was gifting to his daughter and son-in-law. Apparently Wright's architectural stature by that time trumped the attorney's former reservations about the architect's style and the architect turned a Victorian house into Wright-looking house. It must have been that same architectural reknown that gave Moore the courage to ask Wright to rebuild the burned-out shell of the old Tudor house and give it a Wright stamp, scandal or no scandal.
Wright came back, with the chance to right the wrong of many years ago. The house took
on a little bit more of a Wrightian appearance, but the architect apparently still loved calling the place a horror.
Posted by designslinger at 5/13/2010 2:39 AM 
Categories: Architecture, History, Architects, Preservation
Tags: gothic revival architecture Nathan G. Moore Frank Lloyd Wright
Categories: Architecture, History, Architects, Preservation
Tags: gothic revival architecture Nathan G. Moore Frank Lloyd Wright
Love it!! Great little bit of architectural history. Thanks.
-Kelvin
You're welcome. As always!