Springfield, Illinois, is best known for its Lincoln sites. The saviour of union lived here before he was elected president, and his body returned here for burial after his assassination. More surprising is that this Midwestern state capital is also a feast of architecture; mostly high Victorian and Greek Revival with lashings of Federal and a few streets in the business district that could easily host a WWII era drama. But towering over all of these, significant enough to merit a special trip of pilgrimage, is the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Dana Thomas House.
America’s most famous architect designed more than 1,000 structures over a career spanning seven decades, but this one is special. It was the first time, and one of the few, that a very rich and very indulgent owner gave him free reign to do whatever he wanted. He was still early in his career and highly experimental. And, most significantly, the house has more original Lloyd Wright art glass and furniture than any other domestic building he designed.
The cutting-edge creativity of this place is jaw-dropping. Quite simply, her neighbours must have thought that commissioning owner Susan Lawrence Dana had lost her mind. This sprawling complex of Japanese inspiration, clean lines, open plan, and sharp, geometric aesthetics dates from 1904, when fashionable people were maximalists who built houses to look like European palaces. From the moment you step into the tiny, barrel-vaulted entry foyer, surrounded by gently-glowing glass, you know you’re in for something different. There’s a glimpse into a multi-story atrium, but to get there you need to turn into a small, darkened staircase which exacerbates the impact when you come into the light-filled central space of the house.
On your right, an atrium rises the whole height of the house, bathed with natural light and broken up by balconies and galleries on multiple levels. On your left, a low-ceilinged lobby features comfortable chairs in front of a fountain and a wall of art glass behind. These are the famous “sumac windows”, though most people will interpret them as heads of wheat. From here you can also see a barrel-vaulted dining room with some eye-popping geometric light fixtures and a mural of waving grasses and plants. The colour scheme throughout is the same: golden amber, olive greens, burnished oranges, rich reds. Lloyd Wright wanted the whole house to feel as if you were walking through the local prairie in the autumn, and he’s succeeded.
This is one of the earliest and most complete expressions of his famous Prairie Style. It’s also breathtakingly Japanese. The architect hadn’t visited that country yet, but he was already in love with its style. He and Mrs. Dana were said to have bonded over her collection of Japanese prints. Outside, the peaked roofs, wing-tipped eaves and deep green tiles with their mysterious geometric patterns could be straight from a temple in Kyoto. Inside, the homage continues with an abundance of woods, tall carved finials that look like temple decorations and loads of open, flexible space that can be divided for different uses by green curtains rather than the traditional paper screens. There’s even some of that trademark Lloyd Wright glass that looks like a torii gate, hanging in a big arched window so that it frames those exotic gables outside.
The house is also distinguished by its length and levels. Although it could functionally be described as having three stories … a basement, main floor and an upper story with two bedroom suites … there are actually sixteen different levels as rooms dip and rise from one functional space to another. The house stretches the length of a city block, with a library and entertainment hall with another barrel vault extending from the main block. Garages sit on the other side of the rectangle, framing a long, elegant garden in the space between. Porches surround the whole block, offering fabulous possibilities for parties that flowed between inside and out. Mrs. Dana was a famed hostess and it’s obvious from the floor plan. This would be a dream house for entertaining, from intimate dinners to cocktails and canapés for hundreds.
Which is exactly what Mrs. Dana did for decades. But age sapped her energy and an unwise choice of third husband gutted her cash resources. Her trend-setting house sat empty for years at the end of her life its contents were auctioned to raise money for her health care. The house would have been sold, too, had anyone wanted to take on an expensive oddity in the middle of WWII. Medical publisher Charles Thomas recognised the genius of the place, bought the house and used it as his company offices from 1944-1969. During that time he restored sensitively and talked the state of Illinois into buying.the house for its preservation. It took another 20 years to be fully restored and open to the public, in heavy part thanks to the deep personal interest and fund raising skills of former governor Jim Thompson.
Three decades on, the legacy is one of the finest Frank Lloyd Wright sites in the world, offering free guided tours for anyone who books in advance. If you’re ever in, or passing through, Central Illinois, this is worth a special trip. And just what am I doing passing through central Illinois? Read on…
Internal photography is not allowed in the Dana Thomas house. Thanks to the official web site for these borrowed shots.
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