Loving Mr. Wright
Tours, events and inns cater to the many fans of Frank.
© Beth Gauper
The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Bernard Schwartz House in Two Rivers, Wis., is open to guests.
Half a century after his death, Frank Lloyd Wright is as notorious and admired as ever.
June is a good time to connect with the architect, who was born June 8, 1867. His eventful life still provides material for bestsellers, most recently the 2007 novel "Loving Frank,'' about his relationship with the ill-fated Mamah Borthwick Cheney.
Tours
The annual "Wright and Like'' self-drive tour is in the Lake Delavan and Lake Geneva, Wis., area in 2013. The June 8 tour is sponsored by Wright in Wisconsin, which also offers tours of a Wright-designed American Systems-Built home in Milwaukee.
In Wright's hometown of Spring Green, Wis., Taliesin Preservation holds many special events and offers five different tours of the estate from late April through October.
For more, see Drawn to Spring Green.
In Oak Park, Ill., the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust gives regular tours of Wright's home and studio. And mark your calendars if you want to go on its annual Wright Plus Housewalk — the tour of private homes in Oak Park, Ill., $85-$100, sells out far in advance. Tickets for the May 18, 2013, tour go on sale Oct. 1.
It also owns and operates Wright Way Travel, which offers tours to other Wright
buildings, including Wingspread and the S.C. Johnson Wax Administration Building in Racine, Wis.
The Chicago Architecture Foundation gives many tours that include Wright buildings, including one-hour walking tours to Wright’s Prairie-style buildings in Oak Park year-round, $12, and tours of Wright's home and studio, $12 ($20 for both tours).
It also offers the four-hour Frank Lloyd Wright by Bus, $55, and Frank Lloyd Wright Neighborhoods by Bus, $45. Both leave
from the CAF Shop & Tour Center on Michigan Avenue.
In Mirror Lake State Park near the Wisconsin Dells, the 1958 Wright-designed Seth Peterson Cottage is open for tours the second Sunday afternoon of the month
year-round, $4.
Tours are free during Wisconsin's annual state-parks open house, the first Sunday of June.
Near the northeast Iowa town of Quasqueton, Cedar
Rock State Park preserves a 1950 Usonian house Wright designed for businessman Lowell Walter, who left it to the people
of Iowa after his death.
Wright designed the furniture, selected the carpets, chose the draperies and even picked out the accessories for the house, which overlooks the Wapsipinicon River from a limestone bluff.
Tours are available Thursdays-Sundays from Memorial Day weekend through October. Reserve at 319-934-3572.
In Mason City, Iowa, the 1908 Stockman House is open for tours from late May to October, $10, $5 ages 12-17.
© Beth Gauper
In Mason City, the Historic Park Inn includes the former bank.
Cottages and inns
In Mason City, Iowa, the Historic Park Inn, completed in 1910, is the only Wright-designed hotel left. It's been handsomely restored and reopened. Rooms go for $100-$250.
For more, see Wright in Mason City.
Near the Wisconsin Dells, the blufftop Seth Peterson
Cottage in Mirror Lake State Park sleeps four and rents for $225-$275.
In the Lake Michigan town of Two Rivers, Wis., the 1938 Bernard Schwartz
House has four bedrooms and rents for $295-$350 for up to six. It offers tours the first Sunday of February, April, June,
August, October and December; reserve at 612-250-6965.
In the northeast Illinois countryside near Hampshire, the 1951 Usonian Muirhead Farmhouse B&B rents out its master suite.
Last updated on March 22, 2013
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