Frank+Lloyd+Wright+in+the+QCA

Original Author: Johanna Johnson, ENG299 FL10 Revision Author:
 * Frank Lloyd Wright in the QCA **

What says more about a region than its old buildings and structures? There isn’t anything more impressive than an old building full of rich history. Our imaginations are set aflame with the thoughts of what it might have been like back in the buildings’ heyday. The Quad City Area and the areas surrounding it have some of the most interesting architecture in the Midwest. Although the Midwest was far removed from the center of the transcendental movement, the influence of the movement was far reaching. The Quad Cities were affected in many ways. One of those ways was through its architecture. The influence of the transcendentalists seeped into the thinking of famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright built his homes with self-reliance firmly implanted in his mind. Wright’s homes can be found in areas as close as Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Quasqueton, Iowa, and Peoria, Illinois (Frank Lloyd Wright Building Index). This makes the Quad City area a veritable Wright smorgasbord. Of course Frank Lloyd Wright wasn’t the only one building homes in the Quad City Area. The Davenport House, as it is commonly known, boasts some very transcendental qualities in its design. There are also other buildings in Rock Island and some in Moline that show influence from the transcendental thinkers, Emerson in particular. Emerson made many references to architecture in his famous poem “The Snow Storm”. Emerson writes this in reference to architecture:

Come see the north wind’s masonry. Out of an unseen quarry evermore Furnished with tile, the fierce artificer Curves his white bastions with projected roof Round every windward stake, or tree, or door. (Poem of the Week)

As Emerson often does, he is compelling us to think of nature as an inspiration. Emerson compels us to consider art in a different way when he states that “Great works of art have no more affecting lesson for us than… [to] teach us to abide by our spontaneous impression with good-humored inflexibility then most when the whole cry of voices is on the other side.”

Frank Lloyd Wright, who “read and admired Emerson,” also imitated his sentiments that America needs to cease following other countries and start being original (Frank Lloyd Wright’s Architecture). The following is a great quote from Emerson’s Self Reliance:

The intellect is vagabond… Our minds travel when our bodies are forced to stay at home. We imitate; and what is imitation but the travelling of the mind? Our houses are built with foreign taste; our shelves are garnished with foreign ornaments; our opinions, our tastes, our faculties, lean, and follow the Past and the Distant. The soul created the arts wherever they have flourished. It was in his own mind that the artist sought his model. It was an application of his own thought to the thing to be done and the conditions to be observed. And why need we copy the Doric or the Gothic model? Beauty, convenience, grandeur of thought, and quaint expression are as near to us as to any, and if the American artist will study with hope and love the precise thing to be done by him, considering the climate, the soil, the length of the day, the wants of the people, the habit and form of the government, he will create a house in which all these will find themselves fitted, and taste and sentiment will be satisfied also (Emerson, 17).

Emerson was describing that everyone has the tendency to imitate, but that truly great art comes from within, from one’s own creativity. Emerson believed that the power to be satisfied with life resonated within each individual. It is obvious that Frank Lloyd Wright felt the exact same way because his work was so innovative and new. In Cedar Rapids, Frank Lloyd Wright built a home for Douglas Grant. He was, for the first time helping someone else build a home he had designed. The experience was so far removed from any foreign traditions that he called it  “An American Proceeding”. 

This house was “built into a hillside in 1946”. The house was unique in that the owners quarried their own limestone for the construction of the house. The house contains elements of nature that is in keeping with Emerson’s ideas on working with what you have not against it. Emerson said in his famous essay //Self-Reliance// “let the subject be what it may” (Emerson, 1). The Grant House “features a 127-foot-long reinforced concrete roof,” and that is in keeping with the landscape in the Midwest. The house, despite its flat appearance “is actually three stories: the entrance and four bedrooms are on the top floor, a staircase leads to the living room and dining room and the kitchen is on the lower floor.” It is “an example of one of Wright's Usonian homes” (Grant House). Wright is said to have an “earth-hugging” quality about his work because he took traditional American ideas on homes and brought them closer to the ground and this reflected his “desire to integrate home and nature”. Wright also used earthy tones in the interiors of the homes he built. This desire was also strong within the transcendental writers. Many of the transcendental writers wished to incorporate nature into their lives.

Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Cedar Rock, in Quasqueton, Iowa for Agnes and Lowell Walter. Lowell had made quite a fortune for himself in the road building business. He owned the Iowa Road Building Company and made the smart move of investing lots of money paving the country roads in Iowa with his own asphalt topping. With all the money Mr. Lowell had amassed he commissioned Wright to build a home for him “on a limestone bluff”. This is a notable home as it was considered among one of Wright’s most complete designs. This home too was one of Wright’s Usonian homes. Repeating many of the same design elements, Wright once again employed the flat roof made of reinforced concrete. The walls of this home; however, were made of brick and glass. One of the most unique parts of the home is the floors which are made of concrete to utilize the “gravity hot water heating system beneath them”. The outside of the home was covered with his signature red tiles which was a special touch considering this is the only house he built in Iowa with them (Cedar Rock House).

It is plain to see that Emerson had a huge impact, as well as the other transcendentalists, on Frank Lloyd Wright’s work. The areas surrounding the immediate Quad City area are full of Wright’s work. There are even more examples in the same area that reflect the spirit of transcendentalist ideals. The  Davenport House  is a structure that is rich in history and beautiful to behold.

The Davenport House began its construction in the 1830s before the actual American Transcendental movement gained speed. In fact, it was merely a growing seed of a desire for Americans to appreciate nature’s beauty. Colonel Davenport had been granted some money from the settlement between the Sac and Fox Indians, and decided to build himself a secure homestead. It is said that not many people had really developed any land in that area at that time, so the house was considered to be quite grand. Even by today’s standards it is a fairly large house. The original building technique relied heavily on natural elements as did Wright’s homes. The method for building the Davenport House was created by a local carpenter who worked out a basic skeleton for the house as if it were to be built using logs, a natural element. That is another one of Wright’s moves in imitating the transcendentalists. The architecture reflects what the local topography contains. Colonel Davenport was an incredibly important figure in shaping the history of the Quad City Area. His home became a center of commerce and much of the Quad Cities was born from there. The historical website for this house says that Colonel Davenport’s “history equals the Quad City's history shaping its growth and development. On a much larger scale, it reflects the settling of the West”. Along with Davenport, the cities of Rock Island and Moline have some great old buildings that reflect the transcendental spirit as well (Augustana Web Guild).

Emerson stated that everyone should trust in themselves and that “every heart vibrates to that iron string” (Emerson, 2). In Moline there were a multitude of mills in operation. One of the most interesting mills reflected Emerson’s statement. Dimock & Gould was a prominent lumber company. It was unique in that they prided themselves on using “every scrap of lumber for something” (Collins, Johnson, Pierce, 22). Another way some of the architecture reflects the thoughts of Emerson is beautiful buildings used for many differing things. Emerson said "do I not know that he is pledged to himself not to look but at one side, -- the permitted side, not as a man, but as a parish minister?" He is a retained attorney, and these airs of the bench are the emptiest affectation” (Emerson, 5). In Short Emerson thought that variety was a great way to reach self discovery. Having a structure imitate that sentiment is amazing. Moline’s Warr Hall did just that. It was regarded as one of the “busiest buildings in Moline at the turn of the century” (Collins, Johnson, Pierce, 54). It had a café, a business school, and a place for meetings or social gatherings. Rock Island is also home to architecture that boasts a great deal of variety. From Rock Island to Blackhawk Township there were over 50 centennial and sesquicentennial farms” and they were all different. The apparent inconsistency of the barn structures worked to the benefit of all (Coopman, 31). After all, Emerson did say that “a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds” (Emerson, 7).

It is obvious that there were no little minds involved in building the Quad City area. There were artistic geniuses such as Frank Lloyd Wright on the scene. There were people who weren’t afraid to make a multi-purpose building or do things differently. There were also builders that enjoyed putting a little variety into their lives and the lives of the people around them. These people were not afraid to borrow from the transcendental ideals set forth by people like Ralph Waldo Emerson. These people formed an area that is both diverse and rich in history because of what transcendentalism taught them and how it influenced them. One could say that the Quad City Area has the ‘Wright’ stuff.

** Works Cited ** Augustana Web Guild. []. Web. Accessed: 11/30/2010. Coopman, David T. (2008). Moline: City of Mills. Charleston, SC; Chicago, IL; Portismouth, NH; San Francisco, CA. Arcadia Publishing. Collins, David R.; Johnson, Rich J.; Pierce, Bessie J. (1998). Rock Island County. Charleston, SC. Arcadia Publishing. Donna Reilly. An American Proceeding. []. Web. Accessed: 11/30/2010. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Architecture. Achitecture.sk. []. Web. Accessed: 11/30/2010. Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Self Reliance. //Essays: First Series.//(1841) Jackie Craven. Frank Lloyd Wright Buildings Index. About.com. []. Web. Accessed: 11/30/2010. Northern Sky Designs. Grant House. Frank Lloyd Wright Sites. []. Web. Accessed: 11/30/2010. Northern Sky Designs. Cedar Rock House. Frank Lloyd Wright Sites. []. Web. Accessed: 11/30/2010. Ralph Waldo Emerson. Poem of the Week. []. Web. Accessed: 11/30/2010. Schantz, Regina Jo. The Davenport House and Family on Rock Island: A case study in the transformation on the Midwestern frontier to 1858. (1991). [Thesis]

Wright Libraries. Francis Little House. []. Web. Accessed: 11/30/2010.

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