Frank Lloyd Wright's
SAMARA
John E. Christian, Owner


SAMARAQuest


Benton Third Grade Team

Cherokees

Angela Cooklin / Elizabeth Kerkhoff / Laura Stumph

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SAMARAQuest
    1   Was Frank Lloyd Wright funny?
    2   When did you meet him?
    3   Was it hard to ask FLW to build a house?

This is how Frank Lloyd Wright looked at about the time I first knew him. Mr. Wright had a very subtle sense of humor and because of this was often funny.

You could tell when he was only half serious about what he was saying because he had a gleam (twinkle) in his eyes.

I have a photograph in my living room that shows the gleam in his eyes. When you next visit SAMARA, I will show it to you.

We first met Mr. Wright in June of 1950. I called him by phone to see if he would talk to my wife and me about designing a house for us in West Lafayette.

At that time, he was 83 years old. He was very gracious, easy to talk with on the phone, and invited us to visit him at his home (Taliesin) in Spring Green, Wisconsin (about 400 miles from Lafayette).

Taliesin is the name of Mr. Wright's home. It means "brow of the hill" in Welsh (the people of Wales) where his parents came from to America.

Taliesin is very beautiful and is built on the side of a hill on a farm along the Wisconsin River. The house is now open to the public and you can visit it if you are ever in Wisconsin.

My wife and I were married in 1948 and it was at this time that we talked about having a house designed that was different than most and one where we could entertain students and faculty.

We knew we would need to have an architect to design our house but at first we did not think about having Mr. Wright. It was only after we saw one of his homes in New York that we decided to ask him.

By that time, Mr. Wright was famous and very busy and the question was how to ask him. Our problem was further complicated because we had very little money at that time to build a house.

So it was hard for me to make an appointment to see him, let alone asking him to design a house for us.

I finally decided the only way was to call Mr. Wright. Nothing happened at our first meeting, but on our second visit I finally just asked, "Mr. Wright, will you design a home for us?"

He hesitated, cleared his throat, and looked around the room like he was going to say no. Instead, he enthusiastically said, "But, of course I will design your house."

Our mission was successful and this started work on our plans which we received five years later.

I've enjoyed responding to your questions. To learn more about SAMARA, I encourage you to visit the other Benton Third Grade Team pages. You may also be interested in taking a look at the Benton SAMARAQuest Challenge.

The Benton SAMARAQuest Challenge is designed to expand your learnings beyond what you already know about Frank Lloyd Wright and SAMARA. The Challenge suggests activities for exploring things you're interested in learning more about in your studies of the world's greatest architect.

Be sure to visit other
Benton Third Grade Teams
to learn more about
SAMARA
The Benton SAMARAQuest Third Grade Teams Samara / Samara2 / Cherokees
The Usonians / Lafayette Live / The Dragons
Visit these other Benton SAMARAQuest Teams
Grade 3 / Grade 4 / Grade 5 / Grade 6

Return to the Benton SAMARAQuest Main Directory

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Copyright © 1998   All rights reserved.
The John Christian Family Memorial Trust, Inc. and LEARNING ASSOCIATES
Latest revision September 30, 1998