Stephanie Jarrett

Art 372

10/24/14

The Dana-Thomas House by Frank Lloyd Wright

The Dana-Thomas House, built for Susan Lawrence Dana from 1902-1904 was one of the

largest projects Frank Lloyd Wright had taken on since his beginnings as an architect ten years

before. Within a six month period between 1900 and 1901 her husband died as well as her

father, who was the mayor of Springfield. She was left with her fathers house and this massive

renovation was commissioned by Dana for the purpose of housing many people for fundraising

events, parties and receptions. This house has 12,600 feet of living space with 35 rooms, and

16 varying levels. This house contains a collection of more than 100 pieces of Wrights

furniture, 250 glass doors and 100 features of his art glass light fixtures. Today this house is a

National Historic Landmark because it is recognized as a massive achievement of Frank Lloyd

Wright and architects alike (State of Illinois).

As we have covered in class, Frank Lloyd Wright is a very influential domestic architect

from 1888-1959. He never finished architecture school, but he went on to be a student under

the famous Chicago architect Louis Sullivan. After about ten years being a part of Sullivans

company, Wright branched out to make his own architectural company. Over time, Wright

clearly defined his own style by creating houses with his distinct prairie style. This style had

long, shallow sloped rooflines, used local materials, wraparound porches, an open floor plan

and highly decorated elements hidden within the interior and exterior spaces. When walking
around the exterior of the house one can observe the detail in the green, complex, zig-zag

frieze of the upper story as well as the low sloping rooflines that are characteristic of Wrights

style. In the front of the house the roof overhung a wraparound porch and the simple lines of

copper and frieze tracing around the entire outside of the house. The art glass windows viewed

from the outside have the appearance of green, but on the interior looking outside, these shift

to appearing yellow. Upon entering the Dana-Thomas house the viewer can see the three main

levels of the house in the atrium and are visually invited to explore these levels. The layout of

the Dana-Thomas house is very intricate, with winding stairways and hallways leading to some

hidden rooms on the many varying levels. As one walked through the house they would

observe the many pieces of illuminated art glass, art glass windows and furniture, all having a

common color scheme throughout the house, called Sumac. This was a very natural color

scheme of yellows, browns, oranges and greens. The house is mainly made out of wood and

brick, a choice that Wright made because trees and clay are readily available resources in the

central Illinois area. One can appreciate the art glass installation within the structure, lighting

up the interior space with the natural colors and patterns, like the geometric butterfly pattern

that is repeated throughout the light fixtures within the house. There are two barrel-vaulted

ceilings inside the house; one is the gallery room and the other in the dining room. Both were

designed to seat forty people in an open space with an area for musicians to play on the second

story balcony of the room. Within the dining room a painting of trees and nature is featured in

a frieze-like fashion around the perimeter of the room, which unfortunately is now faded due

to years of light exposure.

Overall this house is fascinating in its design, because it is so different than many houses
that we often see or live in today. Wrights intricate attention to detail allows one find new

motifs and surprises within the exterior and interior spaces with his unique architectural

elements, furniture designs, art glass and glass light fixtures. We can learn a lot more in this

fashion of exploration than we could by looking at pictures and hearing about what this house

is like, because one must view this house in person to fully grasp the detail and immense size of

this house that makes it so significant in Wrights career and significant in architectural history.
 Sources Cited

State of Illinois. (n.d.). Dana thomas house state historic site [Video file].