The Anonymous Frank Lloyd Wright and the 700 William Street, River Forest Project

The ultimate question remains, “If Wright didn’t do it, who did?” We know Harry Robinson didn’t design the 700-block William Street houses, or he would have claimed, and had to claim, the project on his application for a government job late in his career. Yet, among his plans that were destroyed, after his death, was #10, “Henry Hogan & Son” with “esq FlW” written on it. While claims might be put forward for William Drummond, Barry Byrne, John van Bergen and others, none so rigorously used the grid as did Wright. Further, in the interiors, transitions from the living room to either dining room or porch, often are as Frank Lloyd Wright would do them, and equally as often as Lloyd Wright, who was certainly drawing the plans, would do them at that time. If the elevations might be considered unsophisticated by Wrightian standards, one must remember that these were inexpensive houses, so likely to be free of any unnecessary ornamentation. Further, Henry-Russell Hitchcock, who generously opened his archive from which he produced In the Nature of Materials to this author, provided many useful insights. Among these were the fact that there were many buildings by Wright “out there” not in the Taliesin archives. These Willliam Street houses fit this claim. --------------From The Anonymous Frank Lloyd Wright and the 700 William Street, River Forest Project by William Allin Storrer, Ph.D.