We spent a successful week in Minnesota at the beginning of July helping Stephanie move into her new house. The only mishap was that on the day that the movers came, I broke the baby toe on my left foot when I hooked it around the bedpost of the bed frame I was trying to help put together. Three hours in the emergency room was not part of my game plan for that day. However, the toe has healed well and only hurts when I have done too much walking in any particular day.
Back here at home I have slowly been trying to gather items for our rummage sale. Originally, I thought I might hold the sale at Lindsay's house, but since neither she nor Chris seems thrilled with the idea, I have decided to hold it here. In the end, that is a good decision because I seem to find more and more items that I want to eliminate from this household. I am amazed at the junk one can accumulate in forty years! Actually, that is not fair. Rick and I moved six times in the first five years we were married, so we purged the household with each move. We also moved here 25 years ago, so I guess most of this "accumulation" occurred within that time period. Regardless of the time, the fact remains that we have WAY too many items that we no longer use in this house. Out it goes!
One reason I have not held a sale is because we are waiting for the City to complete our street repairs. The City has been working on installing new sewers and water lines since May, and they are finally to the point were we hope they will grind up the street this coming week and lay down new pavement. Once all of the "Road closed to thru traffic" signs disappear, perhaps people will feel safe venturing back into the neighborhood.
Rick had been dying to go on a short vacation, so this past Thursday we drove to Racine to see the Frank Lloyd Wright designs of the Administrative Building and Research Tower at Johnson Wax, and to view the Johnson's home designed by Wright called Wingspread.
Herbert Fisk Johnson first commissioned Wright to build the new offices at Johnson Wax. He built the famous workspace that looks like giant golf tees support a glass roof. We had a wonderful tour guide who told us all of the good and not-so-good points of the construction. We then went to the Research Center. We were only allowed to go onto the first two floors since access to the Tower is only through one single, winding staircase. The entire Tower had to be shut down due to fire codes, so it is no longer used. The displays, however, were interesting. Approximately 50 top scientists and chemists used to call the Tower home as they developed Raid, Off, Shout, and many other products for Johnson Wax.
After the Tower tour, we had lunch and then drove the five miles to get to Wingspread. After Wright finished the offices, Herbert Johnson asked him to design a house for him and his second wife. Johnson owned 30 acres of land on the outskirts of Racine, so in 1938-1939 Wright designed and built Wingspread. Ever trying to keep in tune with the environment and nature, Wright noted that H. F. Johnson loved the wild geese and birds that populated the ponds and wetlands that he owned. Wright used that as his inspiration to build a four-winged pinwheel of a house. The central core was a great hall with a 30-foot, four-sided fireplace. The hall accommodated living rooms, a dining area, and balconies from the second floor that overlooked the main floor and provided a great space from which bands to play to entertain Johnson's guests below.
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| The massive fireplace in he Great Hall goes up to a three-tiered ceiling of windows. |
The four wings of the house each had a specific purpose. One wing held the kitchen and pantry (complete with a room where the dining room table could be drawn in, set, and pushed back out to the waiting diners!), four bedrooms for the servants, and a common parlor for them at the end.
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| The structure blends into the landscape thanks to grape vines that drape over patios and gardens that contain sculptures and flowers. This view shows the guest room windows and back of the carports. |
Another wing was devoted to the children. Johnson's second wife had two young sons, and Johnson had two children -- Karin and Samuel -- from his first marriage. Since the boys were all under age 12, he had three bedrooms built for the boys with a large playroom at the end. Sadly, Johnson's second wife died before they could move into Wingspread, and her two young sons moved to the East Coast to live with relatives. They never moved into their bedrooms. Since Samuel did not want to move from the city and away from his friends, Wright built a huge swimming pool off the children's wing so all of Samuel's friends could visit him at Wingspread.
A third wing contained the master bedroom suite and a cantilevered bedroom for 15-year-old Karin, complete with a "Juliette balcony" at the end. A common sitting room adjoined the two bedroom suites.
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| The master bedroom wing shows the cantilevered bedroom of Johnson's daughter complete with the Juliette balcony. This picture also shows the disrepair of the house. |
The final wing, which was not open to the public, contained two large guest rooms and a carport complex to park many cars. Wright also designed all of the gardens to help the house blend into the surrounding environment.
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| The gardens were beautiful Well-placed benches among the flowers offered plenty of space to sit and view nature. |
The house was interesting to view, both Rick and I were shocked to see how much in disrepair the property was. The facia boards were black and rotting, Karin's whole room was sagging with cracked plater, peeling paint, and decidedly uneven floors, and many of the windows showed signs of water damage. The property has been owned by the Johnson Foundation since 1959, and I think that the Foundation had better seriously think about putting some money toward its maintenance if they want to preserve this historic site.
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| Grassy paths invite a person to take a walk. |
Since we were able to get into an earlier tour of the property, we were back in Green Bay by dinner time. I am glad that I finally was able to see the Johnson Wax complex and Wingspread, but I also was glad that the tours were free. Had I had to pay to see the structures, I would have been even more disturbed by their lack of upkeep.
If you want to see Wright's work, I would suggest that you go now. All structures need maintenance, and these buildings are crying for attention. If they are not preserved, eventually they all will have to be shut down.
