The Horse Show Fountain, also known as the Wright-Bock Fountain, is located in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois, United States. [1] The fountain, first erected in 1909, has been widely attributed to both sculptor Richard Bock and architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Though the fountain currently stands at the corner of Oak Park Avenue and Lake Street within Scoville Park, neither the fountain nor the location is original. Its original location was 100 ft (30 m) from its present location, and the fountain was completely reconstructed in 1969 to replace the badly deteriorated original. The 4.6-acre (19,000 m2) Scoville Park is listed as a historic district in the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, but the fountain – because it is a replica – is considered a non-contributing property to the listing.
The Wright-Bock Fountain was originally built by the Oak Park Horse Show Association in 1909 and located on the curb of Lake Street, 100 feet (30.48 m) from its present location. The fountain was built to serve not only people but horses and dogs as well. [2] The fountain's design is generally believed to be a product of sculptor Richard Bock but the actual attribution is a bit fuzzy. [3] Donald P. Hallmark, a Bock historian, stated the fountain was designed by Bock between 1907 and 1908 but with the help of famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright. [3] Bock did much of Wright's architectural sculpture and worked, for a time, in Wright's studio in Oak Park as well. [4] It was Bock himself who suggested that it was Wright who pushed for the central opening in the fountain, and thus he "began to lay claim to the whole project." [3] The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation claims the work as a Wright design from 1903. [5] The Frank Lloyd Wright Trust lists Wright as the architect and Bock as the sculptor. [6]
In 1969 the badly deteriorated original fountain was reconstructed, with the replica placed in Scoville Park at the corner of Oak Park Ave. and Lake Street in Oak Park. Its new location was an area paved with brick and flanked by concrete benches. [2] [7] During the reconstruction the original materials that comprised the fountain were replaced in their entirety. The poured concrete elements of the fountain were replaced with a concrete that had a rough aggregate finish. The reconstruction work was overseen by the Oak Park Beautification Commission. John Michiels, an architect with Perkins and Will, designed the reconstruction while local sculptor Gerald Jaquard replicated Bock's relief work. [7] Alterations on the original design included lining the planters with zinc [8] and the installation of the recessed lights. During the reconstruction, the original inscription (from the original fountain on the facade that now bears the reconstruction-dedication panel) was lost to history. [7]
The fountain's rectangular, concrete slab construction has a strong horizontal emphasis. [9] Two vertical slabs act as posts that support a rectangular lintel above, which extends beyond the edges of the posts. The lintel itself acts as a planter. At the base of the fountain a concrete wall extends between the vertical posts. Above the wall is another horizontal slab which acts as the fountain and features the same design as the upper horizontal slab. To either side of the fountain, at its base, are two concrete pools which have since been converted into flower beds.
The center opening, above the fountain, is adorned with cast concrete panels which contain Bock sculpture and dedications. Ornamentation of the concrete slabs is rather limited and exists only in incised triangles and slanted rectangles at the rear and front of the lintel, and incised pyramids at the front and rear of the fountain tray. Above the fountain, are inscriptions and detailed ornamentation. The inscriptions are located on concrete panels above the fountain tray, one reads "Erected in 1909 Oak Park Horse Show Association" and the other reads "Wright-Bock Plaza Fountain restored 1969." The Horse Show Association inscription is on a sculpted plaque held by two kneeling female forms, below the plaque is a tree trunk and above it the tree's leaves. Beneath the dedication panels are recessed lights which illuminate the fountain tray and cast tablets on the inner portion of the vertical posts. [3]
Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator.
Fallingwater is a house designed by the architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1935 in the Laurel Highlands of southwest Pennsylvania, about 70 miles (110 km) southeast of Pittsburgh in the United States. It is built partly over a waterfall on Bear Run in the Mill Run section of Stewart Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania. The house was designed to serve as a weekend retreat for Liliane and Edgar J. Kaufmann, the owner of Pittsburgh's Kaufmann's Department Store.
Unity Temple is a Unitarian Universalist church in Oak Park, Illinois, and the home of the Unity Temple Unitarian Universalist Congregation. It was designed by the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and built between 1905 and 1908. Unity Temple is considered to be one of Wright's most important structures dating from the first decade of the twentieth century. Because of its consolidation of aesthetic intent and structure through use of a single material, reinforced concrete, Unity Temple is considered by many architects to be the first modern building in the world. This idea became of central importance to the modern architects who followed Wright, such as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and even the post-modernists, such as Frank Gehry. In 2019, along with seven other buildings designed by Wright in the 20th century, Unity Temple was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Johnson Wax Headquarters is the world headquarters and administration building of S. C. Johnson & Son in Racine, Wisconsin. Designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright for the company's president, Herbert F. "Hib" Johnson, the building was constructed from 1936 to 1939. Its distinctive "lily pad" columns and other innovations revived Wright's career at a point when he was losing influence. Also known as the Johnson Wax Administration Building, it and the nearby 14-story Johnson Wax Research Tower were designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1976 as Administration Building and Research Tower, S.C. Johnson and Son.
Prairie School is a late 19th- and early 20th-century architectural style, most common in the Midwestern United States. The style is usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped in horizontal bands, integration with the landscape, solid construction, craftsmanship, and discipline in the use of ornament. Horizontal lines were thought to evoke and relate to the wide, flat, treeless expanses of America's native prairie landscape.
The Larkin Building was an office building in Buffalo, New York, noted for innovations that included central air conditioning, built-in desk furniture, and suspended toilet partitions and bowls. Located at 680 Seneca Street, it was demolished in 1950.
Richard W. Bock was an American sculptor and associate of Frank Lloyd Wright.
The Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio is a historic house and design studio in Oak Park, Illinois, which was designed and owned by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. First built in 1889 and added to over the years, the home and studio is furnished with original Wright-designed furniture and textiles. It has been restored by the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust to its appearance in 1909, the last year Wright lived there with his family. Here, Wright worked on his career and aesthetic in becoming one of the most influential architects of the 20th century.
The Isidore H. Heller House is a house located at 5132 South Woodlawn Avenue in the Hyde Park community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The house was designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The design is credited as one of the turning points in Wright's shift to geometric, Prairie School architecture, which is defined by horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped in horizontal bands, and an integration with the landscape, which is meant to evoke native Prairie surroundings.
The Edward R. Hills House, also known as the Hills–DeCaro House, is a residence located at 313 Forest Avenue in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois. It is most notable for a 1906 remodel by architect Frank Lloyd Wright in his signature Prairie style. The Hills–DeCaro House represents the melding of two distinct phases in Wright's career; it contains many elements of both the Prairie style and the designs with which Wright experimented throughout the 1890s. The house is listed as a contributing property to a federal historic district on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places and is a local Oak Park Landmark.
The George W. Smith House is a home in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois, United States designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1895. It was constructed in 1898 and occupied by a Marshall Field & Company salesman. The design elements were employed a decade later when Wright designed the Unity Temple in Oak Park. The house is listed as a contributing property to the Ridgeland-Oak Park Historic District which joined the National Register of Historic Places in December 1983.
Eben Ezra Roberts (1866–1943) was an American architect known for his work in the early modern Prairie style, pioneered by Frank Lloyd Wright, as well as other traditional residential styles. Roberts was born in Boston and attended architectural school at Tilton Seminary in New Hampshire. After moving to Chicago he eventually established a practice in the suburb of Oak Park, Illinois. In Oak Park alone, Roberts designed over 200 houses.
The George W. Furbeck House is a house located in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park. The house was designed by famous American architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1897 and constructed for Chicago electrical contractor George W. Furbeck and his new bride Sue Allin Harrington. The home's interior is much as it appeared when the house was completed but the exterior has seen some alteration. The house is an important example of Frank Lloyd Wright's transitional period of the late 1890s which culminated with the birth of the first fully mature early modern Prairie style house. The Furbeck House was listed as a contributing property to a U.S. federal Registered Historic District in 1973 and declared a local Oak Park Landmark in 2002.
The Oscar B. Balch House is a home located in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois, United States. The Prairie style Balch House was designed by famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1911. The home was the first house Wright designed after returning from a trip to Europe with a client's wife. The subsequent social exile cost the architect friends, clients, and his family. The house is one of the first Wright houses to employ a flat roof which gives the home a horizontal linearity. Historian Thomas O'Gorman noted that the home may provide a glimpse into the subconscious mind of Wright. The Balch house is listed as a contributing property to a U.S. federally Registered Historic District.
The Francis J. Woolley House is located in Oak Park, Illinois, United States, a Chicago suburb. The house was designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1893. The Queen Anne style home is reflective of Wright's early designs for lower-cost, more affordable housing. The Woolley House is similar to the trio of homes in Oak Park that are widely known as the "bootleg houses." The design is heavily influenced by Wright's first teacher, Joseph Silsbee, and the Arts and Crafts movement. The house is listed as a contributing property to a local and federal historic district.
Herbert and Katherine Jacobs Second House, often called Jacobs II, is a historic house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built west of Madison, Wisconsin, United States in 1946–1948. The house was the second of two designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for journalist Herbert Jacobs and his wife Katherine. Its design is unusual among Wright's works; he called the style the "Solar Hemicycle" due to its semicircular layout and use of natural materials and orientation to conserve solar energy. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974 and declared a National Historic Landmark in 2003.
The Charles L. and Dorothy Manson home is a single-family house located at 1224 Highland Park Boulevard in Wausau, Wisconsin, United States. Designated a National Historic Landmark, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 5, 2016. Reference Number, 16000149.
The Architecture of Buffalo, New York, particularly the buildings constructed between the American Civil War and the Great Depression, is said to have created a new, distinctly American form of architecture and to have influenced design throughout the world.
Scoville Park is a public park in Oak Park, Illinois. Designed by Jens Jensen, the Danish-American landscape architect, the park is located at the corner of Lake Street and Oak Park Avenue in the town's central Hemingway District, next to the Oak Park Public Library. The park is home to a war memorial for local veterans of World War I titled Peace Triumphant, the replica Horse Show Fountain, a meadow that hosts summer concerts and other village events, and a playground and tennis courts. The park was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.
The 20th-Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright is a UNESCO World Heritage Site consisting of a selection of eight buildings across the United States that were designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. These sites demonstrate his philosophy of organic architecture, designing structures that were in harmony with humanity and its environment. Wright's work had an international influence on the development of architecture in the 20th century.