Graycliff: Derby, New York

Graycliff- Derby, NY
Frank Lloyd Wright

My grandparents live in Rochester, NY so for years I have been begging them to take me to a Frank Lloyd Wright house, since I believe there are several in the Buffalo area.

Graycliff is located on the shores on Lake Erie. It was built between 1926 and 1929; designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for Isabelle Martin to be her family's summer home (her husband was and executive of Larkin Company, which I believe Wright also designed an office building for). Graycliff includes 3 buildings: the Heat Hut, the 3,100 square foot Foster House, and the 6,500 square foot Isabelle Martin House.

Features of the house include broad cantilevers, ribbon windows dominating both the front and back sides, and a huge stone fireplace that has openings in both the living room and dining room.

While on our tour of the house, the tour guide talked most about the strong horizontal lines displayed by the buildings, in connection with the horizontal lines of the lake behind it. The guide repeated frequently Wright's desire to harmonize the buildings with the landscape around it (his concept of 'organic architecture').

*these are my own pictures*
the top picture is the front of the house with the little pond, the second picture is the back of the house, the third is a cantilever, and the fourth is the stair structure leading down to the Lake Erie shore.

Walter Gropius house

Walter Gropius house: Lincoln, Massachusetts

Walter Gropius was the founder of the highly influential German school of architecture known as the Bauhaus. Gropius designed this as his family home when he came to America to teach at Harvard.

The style of the house became known in America as the new International style. It is designed much in keeping with the Bauhaus principles, using simple lines and designed to be completely efficient. It combined traditional materials such as wood, brick, and fieldstone, with innovative materials such as glass block, and chrome banisters. The furniture in the house was designed by Marcel Breuer for the Gropius family.

While taking the tour of the house, the tour guide told us many interesting facts about the Gropius house. She mentioned that in the dining room, the lighting was designed so that there is only a single ceiling fixture which casts light directly down only over the tabletop, not on the chairs or people in them. She also mentioned that the Gropius house is located down the road from Walden Pond, the place that gave Henry David Thoreau his inspiration for his book "Walden."

*these are my own pictures :)*

The Breakers

The Breakers in Newport, RI was the summer home of the Vanderbilt family. Built between 1893 and 1895, it is a 5 story, 65,000 square foot, 70 room mansion. It took more than $7 million dollars to build, which today would equal about $150 million!

Because the previous mansion built on the property burned down, Cornelius Vanderbilt wanted the house built as fireproof as possible. Therefore, there are no wooden parts in the structure of the building; it is all steel. The architect was Richard Morgan Hunt; he designed the Breakers in the Beaux-Arts style.

This mansion is considered the ultimate symbol of a period in architecture known as the "Gilded Age." It shows the excessive opulency and extravagance and extreme wealth of the powerful families during that time.

The mansion is now open to the public for tours, except for the third floor where the present family members still reside. Around 300,000 people visit a year, making it the biggest tourist attraction in this area.

The Mark Twain House, Hartford, CT

Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) House

What strikes me most about this house is that no two elevations are alike. The exterior is very unpredictable and random, which makes it very interesting.. much like the writer himself. Tiffany and his partners of Associated Artists designed the interiors, keeping with the theme of variety and experimentation found on the exterior.

Not only is the house architecturally striking, it is also innovating in the technologies used that were very modern at the time the house was constructed. These included a gravity heat flow system, split flues that allowed for a window over the fireplaces, and flush toilets in the bathrooms. The Twain house was also one of the very first private homes to have a telephone installed.

I really want to go here!!

Rodney, MS- the "Almost Capital"

--- Sacred Heart Roman Catholic church built in 1863 in Rodney, MS; moved to Grand Gulf State Park in 1983. I have been in it many times, it is Gothic architecture. The outside has been restored beautifully.

Although Rodney, MS is now known as a ghost town (much to the dislike of the few who live there), before the Civil War it was prospering and considered a location for the capital of MS. The most famous story about Rodney occured during the Civil War, after the fall of Vicksburg. Rodney is located on the river, so the Union gunboat the Rattler was stationed there to keep watch over the town. The soldiers on the boat liked to watch the southern belles go into church on Sundays. Finally, one Sunday a few of them went into the church and were discovered by the Rebel soldiers. Shots were fired on both sides, ending with the Rebels taking over the Rattler gunboat. This marked the first time in history a small squad of soldiers overtook an entire ironclad gunboat crew.