In the latest phase of the kitchen restoration at the Elizabeth Murphy House, our goal was to rid the room of inappropriate materials and tie together the old and recent cabinets. But we found some lost details worth restoration.
Thanks to host Heather Sabin of Monona Terrace's Wright Design Series and Brian Hannan of event-sponsor Wright in Wisconsin, we are able to bring you this recorded presentation and tour of the Elizabeth Murphy House - Frank Lloyd Wright's Forgotten House.
Why is there an invisible slot milled in Frank Lloyd Wright's windows? Should we fill it with something, and if so, what? Architects, homeowners, historians and restorers are welcomed to weigh in.
In a way, our quest to preserve this tiny home is like time travel. We want to understand what Frank Lloyd Wright intended at the time he intended it.
We bought Frank Lloyd Wright's Elizabeth Murphy House with a plan to restore and care for her, but quickly discovered a curious and unexpected form of stewardship. Like nuns in a 19th century orphanage, we find ourselves caring for the forsaken.
Imagine a couple of kids - one hundred years ago - sitting at the table, back to the warm morning sun, sipping milk while one parent flipped breakfast eggs and the other buttered toast and they all planned the weekend. It's not only about seeing things, but about living and being together in an American System-Built House.
You don't see many pictures of the kitchen in our gallery because we've not yet solved an aesthetically-complex issue: a sight-line destroyed by a modern appliance. We have a fix.
The level of Wright's brilliance and forethought contained on this one page seems stunning - out of this world - to us amateurs.
As we assembled the proper tools and processes to make Frank Lloyd Wright's window sashes as Arthur Richard’s factory might have made them, we uncovered evidence of a decision to slow production in order to ensure quality, made a century ago.
To make the main living space behave much larger, Frank Lloyd Wright designed an open and flexible floor plan that could be reconfigured for a special occasion, like a holiday party.
The Elizabeth Murphy House 