The Charnley-Norwood House is a summer (winter) cottage designed by architects Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright in 1890 in Ocean Springs, Mississippi on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The home was built as a vacation residence for James Charnley, a wealthy Chicago lumber baron, and its style represents an important change in American residential architecture known as Prairie School. [1]
The Charnley-Norwood House was built in the early 1890s and restored in the 1980s, but was severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The estate is currently under the management of the Mississippi Gulf Coast National Heritage Area.
In 1890, Louis Sullivan, of Adler & Sullivan architecture firm in Chicago, designed the Charnley-Norwood house as a summer cottage for his friend James Charnley. [2] Frank Lloyd Wright was a young draftsman in Sullivan's office at the time, but there is little evidence to suggest that Wright actually had a hand in the making of the 3,000 square foot cottage. Wright never once visited the site. In his autobiography, Sullivan recalls quickly designing the "two shacks" himself in March 1890, then the prepared plans were given to a local carpenter to construct. Beyond its experimental residential design, the Charnley-Norwood house stands out because of its association with two of America's greatest architects – Louis Sullivan, known as the “father of the skyscraper,” and Frank Lloyd Wright, often called the “father of modern architecture." [1]
Sullivan discovered the area while vacationing in New Orleans. He ran into wealthy friends, the Charnleys, who urged him to visit the “coastal paradise” they had recently explored. Ocean Springs, Mississippi was only a small village at the time, and provided a peaceful retreat from the hustle and bustle of Chicago. Sullivan's writings from the period describe the property as “[a] stately forest of amazing beauty… arranged as though by the hand of an unseen poet. Ah, what a delight, what luxury of peace within the velvety caressing air… the odor of the waters and the pines." [3]
Sullivan and Charnley purchased adjoining gulf-side properties in Ocean Springs, MS to construct their two vacation residences. The Charnley-Norwood House Complex contains the main house as well as an octagonal guest cottage. The home sits on an acre of beachfront property at 509 East Beach Drive in Ocean Springs, MS, 39564. [1]
The design of the homes and cottage differ significantly from Victorian architecture of the era. The T-shape bungalow style incorporates horizontal design, rooms that flow from one into the next, natural materials and large glass windows throughout. The interior floors, walls and ceilings of the Charnley-Norwood House are constructed of local heart and curly pine, while the exterior walls are clad using wood shingles. [4] To accommodate residents during the muggy and hot Mississippi summers, the home's design efficiently utilizes large roof overhangs and covered porches at the south, west, and east sides of the house provide protection from the harsh, southern sun, while offering opportunities to enjoy the serene setting of the home. Numerous doors and operable windows are arranged along the exterior of the house to efficiently distribute both onshore and offshore breezes to cool the residence. Fireplaces located in each of the bedrooms, entry hall, and dining room supply warmth for the cooler winter temperatures. [5]
Although the style is strikingly different from typical 19th century residential architecture, the forms used for the Charnley-Norwood house later became the hallmarks of modern architecture. The home represents a watershed in residential design, offering historians insight into the evolutionary forces that powerfully reshaped 20th century American residential architecture. [1]
In 1895, Charnley sold the property to fellow Chicago businessman Frederick W. Norwood. Norwood's business operations were based near Brookhaven, MS, where he dealt in general merchandise as well as lumber. In 1897, the main house burned to the ground, but Sullivan modified and rebuilt it to nearly the same design. During the Norwoods' time in the home, Mrs. Norwood had a garden of Bon Silene roses planted out front. The blush-pink ruffled petals of these roses added to the charm of the property and provided the name the Norwoods used to refer to the estate, “Bon Silene.” [1]
Upon their construction, the Charnley-Norwood House and Sullivan Bungalow were two of only a few homes near the Eastern Beach of Biloxi Bay. The area was relatively undeveloped at the time and surrounded by wood and wetland. The Charnley-Norwood House is currently neighbored by a strip of beachfront homes along East Beach Drive in Ocean Springs, MS.
In 2005, Hurricane Katrina’s massive storm surge destroyed Sullivan's cottage and severely damaged the Charnley-Norwood House and guest cottage. Although the main house was knocked off its piers and moved during the storm, the building survived in spite of a severely compromised structure. With one side completely collapsed and the porch washed away, the house sat in a state of disarray. The brick foundation piers pierced through the floor in the front portion of the home where the structure landed after being floated by floodwaters. [5]
Volunteers salvaged many pieces of the buildings from piles of debris that remained on the property. Recovered pieces were stored in large metal containers at the back of the complex. Sadly, due to the enormous cost required to restore the house to its previous state, two years passed before any significant progress could be made.
The Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) and the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources (MDMR) partnered to fund the $2.3 million acquisition and restoration project. Beginning in the spring of 2008, MDAH performed stabilization work on the home. In 2011, MDMR purchased the house and property for $1.4 million through the federal Coastal Impact Assistance Program (CIAP). MDAH contributed $300,000. [4]
Contractor J.O. Collins completed the home restoration under the supervision of Albert and Associates Architects and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History Gulf Coast Field Office staff. [6]
During his lifetime, Frank Lloyd Wright built 532 homes, museums, and office buildings. Of those, Wright designed only four homes in the state of Mississippi. Two of the four have been destroyed by hurricanes Camille and Katrina: the Welbie L. Fuller Residence, Pass Christian, MS; and Louis Sullivan Bungalow, Ocean Springs, MS, respectively. Fountainhead in Jackson, MS and Charnley-Norwood in Ocean Springs, MS remain. Of these two, Charnley-Norwood is the only home that is open to the public (Storrer, 2002). [7]
The Gulf Coast National Heritage Area Program manages the property under the MDMR. The Heritage Area is a program designation though the United States National Park Service that recognizes conservation and preservation of historic properties, one of which being the Charnley-Norwood House. The home is open to the public weekly for tours and available for cultural and artistic events.
Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements of the twentieth century, influencing architects worldwide through his works and hundreds of apprentices in his Taliesin Fellowship. Wright believed in designing in harmony with humanity and the environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture. This philosophy was exemplified in Fallingwater (1935), which has been called "the best all-time work of American architecture".
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The James Charnley Residence, also known as the Charnley-Persky House, is a historic house museum at 1365 North Astor Street in the Gold Coast neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Built in 1892, it is one of the few surviving residential works of Louis Sullivan.
The Louis Sullivan Bungalow was a vacation home for noted architect Louis Sullivan on the Gulf Coast in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its association with Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright, who both claimed credit for its design. It was built in the early 1890s and restored in the 1980s, but was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
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The Thomas H. Gale House, or simply Thomas Gale House, is a house located in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois, United States. The house was designed by famous American architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1892 and is an example of his early work. The house was designed by Wright independently while he was still employed in the architecture firm of Adler & Sullivan, run by engineer Dankmar Adler and architect, Louis Sullivan; taking outside commissions was something that Sullivan forbade. The house is significant because of what it shows about Wright's early development period. The Parker House is listed as contributing property to a U.S. federally Registered Historic District. The house was designated an Oak Park Landmark in 2002.
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... [W]hen a restaurant is designed by such a giant in his profession as the late architect Frank Lloyd Wright, it's important to find out what makes it a thing of beauty—to analyze in detail the elements of its design and appointments in search of principles that can be applied to food service facilities elsewhere.
No one in the past century has influenced architecture as an art and science more profoundly than Frank Lloyd Wright. Basic to his philosophy of "organic" architecture was the tenet that a building and its environment should be as one—that the structure, through proper blending of native materials and creation of appropriate linear features, should be in perfect harmony with its surroundings.
"Organic architecture comes out of nature," Wright said in a Food Service Magazine interview shortly before he died. He believed that each detail of the architecture and interior should be related to the building's overall concept. Each design element should reflect the whole environment, as opposed to having each design component reflect a separate idea all its own. ...
The Spring Green is a very subtle structure. It does not impose brash neon signs or harsh vertical lines upon an essentially horizontal rolling countryside. The structure is built, for the most part, only of those materials that come from the vital riverscape which is the site of the restaurant.
Wright's disciple, William Wesley Peters ... observes, "The building and its forms arise from the use of natural materials to their specific properties. For example, the rich, buff-colored limestone was quarried only a few miles away. It was laid in great horizontal courses with long, thin, projecting ledges that symbolically represent the character and quality of the stone at the quarry."
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The Elizabeth Murphy House is an American System-Built Home (ASBH), Model A203, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, and located in the Village of Shorewood near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The house takes its name from Elizabeth Murphy, wife of loan broker Lawrence Murphy, who purchased a lot as an investment on which to build the house speculatively, and who contracted with Herman F. Krause, Jr., a carpenter, to build the house in 1917 according to plans supplied by Frank Lloyd Wright via Wright's marketing agent for ASBH projects, the Arthur L. Richards Company.
The George Blossom House in Chicago was designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1892, while Wright was still working in the firm of Adler and Sullivan. As Wright was working as a draftsman for Adler and Sullivan, he was forbidden from taking outside commissions. He later referred to these designs as his "bootleg houses".
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