An error has occurred while processing this page. The site administrator has been notified. We apologize for the inconvenience.
141
WRIGHT, FRANK LLOYD. Archive of letters, documents, telegrams, photographs and blueprints relating to the unbuilt Louis B. Hall house of Ann Arbor, MI, including 5 Typed Letters Signed by Wright concerning the project, a Signed Check and a Document Signed by Wright, as well as 4 Typed Letters Signed by Eugene Masselink. Also included are two identical sets of blueprints with the original tube and a printed survey of the lot with a hand-drawn and hand-colored rendering of the proposed house. The archive also contains a group of documents and photographs of the site relating to a lawsuit by the Halls against the city of Ann Arbor over the destruction of trees on their property and 3 issues of A Taliesin Square-Paper. Format and condition vary. Vp, 1949-52
WRIGHT, FRANK LLOYD. Archive of letters, documents, telegrams, photographs and blueprints relating to the unbuilt Louis B. Hall house of Ann Arbor, MI, including 5 Typed Letters Signed by Wright concerning the project, a Signed Check and a Document Signed by Wright, as well as 4 Typed Letters Signed by Eugene Masselink. Also included are two identical sets of blueprints with the original tube and a printed survey of the lot with a hand-drawn and hand-colored rendering of the proposed house. The archive also contains a group of documents and photographs of the site relating to a lawsuit by the Halls against the city of Ann Arbor over the destruction of trees on their property and 3 issues of A Taliesin Square-Paper. Format and condition vary. Vp, 1949-52
-
Notes: In 1948, after reading an article in House Beautiful about the Loren Pope house, Louis and Janice Hall began a life-long quest to build their own dream house. Not expecting a reply, they contacted Wright at Taliesin. His reply, present in this archive: "Terms for services enclosed. If you insist, send details." A phone call with the architect soon followed and then a visit to Spring Green so that Wright could interview the couple to see if they were worthy of his efforts. Included in this archive is a photocopy of a typescript written by Hall detailing the meeting with Wright and the project. Over the course of 1950-51, Wright finished the design -- a typical Wright house of the period. It is described in the Frank Lloyd Wright Monograph as "similar to the plan for the Conklin house, but the roof over the living room has been handled in a different manner: it proceeds up from a central point in two different pitches, one over the living room and terrace, the other over the entry and the seats at that end of the living room. As with the Elam house, the drama of the scheme lies in this detail of the roof structure."
However, the Halls -- a family of limited means -- could not raise the money to pay for constuction, nor could they find an institution willing to loan them the estimated $28,000. Writing about the costs involved in a 29 May 1950 letter to the Halls in this archive, Wright suggests, "good thing to bear in mind that anything of permanent value you can buy with money now is the thing to do with it -- while it buys anything." Although in love with Wright's design, the Hall family eventually had to give up the project in Ann Arbor after Louis left his job as a supervisor at a Ford factory to take a job in California for a defense contractor. However, as related in Louis Hall's narrative, their dream lived on as they continually imagined the Ann Arbor house that was never built.
Accepted Forms of Payment:
May 12, 2005 12:00 AM EDT
New York, NY, US
Swann Auction Galleries
You agree to pay a buyer's premium of 0% and any applicable taxes and shipping.