Monday (7/20) 

Oops!  pictures got posted twice - too hard to remove - sorry.

We went back to the House on the Rock to finish our tour.   There are three separate tours - the house and two museums.  Today we did the house and the second museum.   Alex Jordan, the architect and owner, got his money to expand House on the Rock by charging admissions.   His first admission was charged in 1960 and generated so much money that the was able to amass an unbelievable collections of "things."   Mr. Jordan died in 1989 and had turned the management of the home over to friends of his in 1988.

The House on the Rock begins with the Gatehouse which was opened in 1961.  The Gate House was where you first entered to get to the main house.  Unlike a normal gatehouse, at the edge of the property, this gatehouse is well within the property and very near the main house.  It is built into the rock and has about 1500 sq. ft. of living space.  From there you progress to the main house which sits high on top of the 60 foot chimney of rock called Deer Shelter Rock.  It was built in the early 40's and it was his father who suggested that the house needed to pay for itself and he should charge admissions to see it.  The furnishing in the House include oriental art, stained glass, bronze statuary, numerous Bauer and Cobel lamps and a three story bookcase filled with rare books.  The last room built on the house is called the Infinity Room and it was opened to the public in 1985.  The room projects out over the Wyoming Valley 218 feet and contains 3,264 windows and is 156 feet above the ground (see picture.)  Impressive to look at from the outside but not too functional from the inside - but the rest of the house isn't very functional either.  It is, however, extremely interesting as it incorporates the rock and trees throughout the house.

Next was the second museum on the House on the Rock property.  This museum is made up of several distinct areas. The areas include the Organ Room, the Doll House Building, the Circus Building, a series of galleries with the following collections:  Weapons, Oriental, Armor and the Crown Jewels Collection.  There is a Doll Carousel Room with two carousels displaying over 500 bisque dolls.  One could spend many hours just trying to absorb all that is contained in these areas.  Even the bathrooms in one area did not escape use as a place to display items (see picture.)

In the afternoon, we headed to the Frank Lloyd Wright Complex.  The complex is made up of four areas containing structures designed by Mr. Wright.  They are the Visitor Center, Taliesin (his home), Midway (a series of barns) and Hillside (a boarding school and then it became a studio for Mr. Wright.)  Hillside was built in 1902 for two of Mr. Wright's aunts who wanted to run a boarding school.  In 1917, they retired and Mr. Wright took the property over building a large studio on it.   That studio today is the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture.   It admits about 25 to 30 students each year - very exclusive!!!

Taliesin is really the third home Mr. Wright had on the property.   The first two homes on this spot burned to the ground - one in 1914 by arson and the second in 1925 by lightening.   The entire property called Taliesin has 37,000 sq. ft. of space but a major portion of that is a studio and out buildings.  The actual house is approx. 3,000 sq. ft.  It has a wonderful formal living room that has unbelievable views of the Wyoming Valley.  Unlike some of the homes designed by Mr. Wright that we have seen, we felt this was a very warm and inviting home.  In typical fashion, they are problems with leaking roofs and shifting foundations.   Mr. Wright's structures are known for leaking roofs and his own home was no exception.  One item of note is the use of plywood throughout the house.  Mr. Wright felt that everything was temporary and would be changed at a later date so there was no need to use expensive building materials.  The setting for this home is on the side of a hill which was incorporated into the placement of the structures.  Mr. Wright's style of architecture was to incorporate nature into his structures and use local materials.  This has become known as organic architecture.