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Frank Lloyd Wright is the most widely-known architect in the world. The only structure he designed in Nebraska is the Sutton “Prairie School” house in McCook, built in 1905. David Wendell, of Holdrege, has a sizable collection of Wright artifacts on display for a “first of its kind” exhibit at Pioneer Village in Minden. Nebraska Public Media’s Dale Johnson caught up with Wendell at our studios in Lincoln.
Dale Johnson: What compelled you, David, to spend 30-plus years of your life gathering mural-sized photos and drawings and furniture decorative arts and stained glass, all connected to the genius of Frank Lloyd Wright?
David Wendell: My family actually hails from Nebraska. Specifically. My mother was from the Holdrege area and my father was from the Minden area. I had the opportunity to visit McCook, saw the Sutton house and said, ‘Wow, this is so much different than anything else I've ever seen. What is this?’ And that kind of sparked a lifelong passion that still is burning to this day, because Frank Lloyd Wright was so different in his designs than any others, not only at the turn of the century from the 1800s into the 1900s, but well into the 1950s almost anyone, whether they know anything about architecture or not, when they spot one, will say, ‘Well, that is so different. That is so unique. Who did that?’ And that's what sparked my interest in Frank Lloyd Wright, a lifetime passion that continues to this day after visiting scores and scores and scores of his homes across the country.
Johnson: Your exhibit at Pioneer Village is entitled “Prairie masterpieces, the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright,” focusing on Wright's prairie-style design. Give a description that is featured at the Sutton house in McCook.
Wendell: Sure, he looked around him and said, What can I do that's different. And because he was from the Midwest like you and I, with the wide open prairies around him, he said, I'm going to design a uniquely American style of architecture which didn't exist yet, and that's how he chose to originate. This style was to, if you will, construct buildings that resembled the environment around him here in the Midwest. And that meant emphasizing the horizontal and the Sutton house especially does this. If you take a look, it may be a two-story tall house, but when you look at it, initially, you'd think it was a little bit smaller than that, and Wright was able to achieve that effect by overhanging eaves that direct your attention further out from the vertical walls of the home. And in one of the most remarkable engineering feats of his time, was able to extend a hip roof out from the side of the house appearing as if it should have columns on the end of it, but instead it simply hangs there, literally as the wing of a bird. And all of this therefore stretches your attention outward, rather than focusing inward.
Johnson: We mentioned the Sutton home in McCook is the only Frank Lloyd Wright designed home. It is, but what's the connection to Stuar Museum in Grand Island?
Wendell: That's another thing that amazed me when I was young, was when I first visited the Stuhr Museum, and I said, What is this doing here? It was so different than any other building around it, and that was because of the influence of Frank Lloyd Wright, so Edward Durell Stone was an aspiring architect at the time that Frank Lloyd Wright came up with the idea of having apprentices come to work for him to do most of his work, whether it was work in the field or actually constructing the houses that he designed and so forth. And stone therefore came to know Frank Lloyd Wright's principles and ideas very well and then set out on his own. And if you take a look at, for example, the main building the Stuhr Museum, you'll notice that the roof line extends way out from the vertical walls of that structure, reminiscent of what you would find in Frank Lloyd Wright.
Johnson: Back to your exhibit at Pioneer Village. It's there for the duration of the summer, correct?
Wendell: Yes.
Johnson: What will people see?
Wendell: What will you see? Well, what I wanted to do is to provide a perspective on, one, the prairie style and how it gave form to the Sutton house and then the Sutton house gave form to other prairie style landmarks across the country, but also to show that Frank Lloyd Wright, if nothing else, demonstrated his genius by being able to adapt. The prairie style fell out of favor, as styles of any kind generally tend to do, and he looked for an alternative. And so he developed what he called the Usonian style, which was much less decorated. The Sutton house has beautiful stained-glass windows, for example. Well, as we got into the 1930s stained glass windows, and that sort of detail was not all that popular anymore, at least as a cutting-edge style of design. And so Wright also evolved and created this Usonian style, which incorporated mostly glass and brick and concrete, which, as we evolved into the 1940s and 1950s became the modus operandi for most cutting-edge architects.
Johnson: Best of luck with your exhibit. Thank you so much for bringing this to my attention, and you did not. Know that I was a Frank Lloyd Wright geek when you sent me that introductory email. David Wendell joining me from Holdrege Nebraska, the exhibit is called “Prairie masterpieces, the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright” now at Pioneer Village in Minden,
Wendell: Come see it. It's the right thing to do.
Johnson: I'm Dale Johnson Nebraska Public Media.