Saving the Family: Middle Class Attraction to Wright's Prairie House, 1901-1909

Abstract

the development of the at the turn of the 20th century. A departure from the various eclectic styles which dominated American design, it embodied, according to Wright, radically different conception of how a residence should appear, what it should do, and what it should contain.' The prairie house looked longer and lower than conventional dwellings, with its masses, terraces, portes-cochere and roof overhangs stretching out horizontally across the land, reflecting the earth-lines of the Middle West where Wright and most of his clients lived. Its interior space was more open than other styles, with reception, living and dining areas flowing into each other, and with substantially increased fenestration merging indoors and out. Internal and external horizontal trim emphasized interpenetrating spaces, added to the feeling of sheltered intimacy, and unified the design around simple harmonies uncharacteristic an era of architectural overstatement. Many of Wright's admirers still maintain that the prairie house received a hostile reception. Contractors, bankers, the professional establishment and the general public supposedly ridiculed Wright and abused those brave clients who suffered indignities in the cause of architecture. Actually, the new design was popular, the more so as it continued to depart from architectural tradition. From 1901, when he first announced it the February Ladies' Home Journal, until September 1909 when he left his office to spend a year Europe, Wright was commissioned to design approximately one hundred prairie houses, of which 64 were actually built. From 1901 through