User:CaroleHenson/Taliesin
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Taliesin /ˌtæliˈɛs[invalid input: 'ɨ']n/, also known as Taliesin East after 1937, was the estate of American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Located 2.5 miles (4.0 km) south of the village of Spring Green, Wisconsin, United States, the 600-acre (240 ha) property was developed on land that originally belonged to Wright's maternal family. A National Historic Landmark and National Register of Historic Places district, it includes nine contributing properties: Taliesin III, the landscape, Hillside Home School, the Hillside Playhouse, the dam, Romeo and Juliet Windmill, Midway Farms, the pool and gardens in the courtyard, and Tan-Y-Deri. Taliesin III is the third house and studio that Wright design and had built.
Taliesin East | |
Location | south of Spring Green, in Iowa County, Wisconsin |
---|---|
Coordinates | 43°08′30″N 90°04′15″W |
Built | 1911–1959 |
Visitation | 25,000[1] (2009) |
NRHP reference No. | 73000081[2] |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | January 7, 1976 |
Designated NHLD | January 7, 1976[2] |
Wright first designed the estate after his affair with Mamah Borthwick made headlines and forced him out his residence in Oak Park, Illinois. The design of the original house, Taliesin I, was consistent with the design principles of the Prairie School, emulating the flatness of the plains and the natural limestone outcroppings of the Driftless Area. The house was completed in 1911.
After a disgruntled employee murdered Borthwick and several others and set fire to the house in 1914, Wright rebuilt the Taliesin estate. This second version, dubbed Taliesin II, was used only sparingly by Wright as he worked on his projects abroad. He returned to the house in 1924, shortly before a fire destroyed the living quarters the next April. A third building was constructed after Wright reacquired the foreclosed property from a bank. Taliesin III was Wright's home for the rest of his life, although he began to winter at Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona upon its completion in 1937. designed many of his acclaimed buildings here, including Fallingwater, the Imperial Hotel, Johnson Wax Headquarters, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Wright was also an avid collector of Asian art and used Taliesin as a storehouse and private museum.
Taliesin was donated to the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation upon Wright's death in 1959. This organization oversaw renovations to the estate and now operates it as a museum. The property was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976 and is being considered as part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.