Dana-Thomas House

Today we went to see a home in Springfield that Frank Lloyd Wright design. The word "home" is actually inappropriate; anything over 12000 square feet spread over 16 different floors should be called a palace, I think. Also, the second floor "siding" is actually a few hundred plaster friezes. Zoom in on the picture and you can see them. Houses have brick, aluminum, or wood siding - not plaster friezes.

They don't allow pictures inside, so we couldn't show you the bowling alley, the library, or the furniture that is so uncomfortable that when the contents of the house were put up for auction in 1943, nobody would bid on them. The moral of the story: genius architects should design buildings, not furniture. They should also design glass; of the half dozen or so Frank Lloyd Wright houses I've been to, this has had the best glass work, including a butterfly theme and four "butterfly" chandeliers.

Also in keeping with the more medieval style, the house is, additionally, poorly lit. When the house was restored, they tried to be as faithful as possible. They did not have 75 Watt light bulbs in 1902, and 110 years later, neither will we! Call your congressman or senator's office and tell them that incandescent light bulbs should not go the way of the dodo. Anyway, despite being poorly lit, it was the first house in Springfield which was built with electric wiring (others were previously updated) and was known as the "lightest and brightest" house in Springfield.

Anyway, the governor decided that he was going to cut off funding for the house. As about 3/5 of the house's budget comes from the state, this means they'll have to stop showing tours and all that. As much as it pains me to admit it, I think the governor has a point on this one - upkeep for the Dana Thomas house runs $35,000 a month! This story does, however, have a happy ending (for Julie and I, at least); when we finished our tour, we went to Cold Stone and got some "All Lovin' No Oven"