Westhope

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Westhope
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Westhope
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Westhope
Interactive map showing Westhope’s location
Location3700 S. Birmingham Tulsa, Oklahoma
Coordinates 36°6′35″N95°57′14″W / 36.10972°N 95.95389°W / 36.10972; -95.95389
Built1929
Architect Frank Lloyd Wright
Architectural style Textile Block
NRHP reference No. 75001575 [1]
Added to NRHPApril 10, 1975

Westhope, also known as the Richard Lloyd Jones House, is a Frank Lloyd Wright designed Textile Block home that was constructed in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1929. This was Wright's only Textile Block house outside of California. [2] The client, Richard Lloyd Jones, was Wright's cousin and the publisher of the Tulsa Tribune .

Contents

This building is located at 3704 South Birmingham Avenue. [3] The home has five bedrooms and five baths. [3] It encompasses 10,405 square feet on 1.5 acres. [3] Besides the textile blocks stacked in vertical columns, the home features 5,200 panes of glass covering almost half the exterior of the structure. [3] [4] It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places listings in Tulsa County, Oklahoma on April 10, 1975 under National Register Criteria C, g, with an NRIS number of 75001575. [5]

Westhope is the location of a frequently-quoted anecdote about Wright: Richard Lloyd Jones called Wright in the middle of a storm to complain that the roof was leaking on his desk, and Wright replied, "Richard, why don't you move your desk?" [6] [7] But Jones’ wife Georgia had an equally memorable perspective regarding the leaking structure: she said, “This is what we get for leaving a work of art out in the rain.” [8]

Jones paid over $100,000 for construction, even though the original budget was $30,000. [3] After Jones' death in 1963, his widow traded houses with M. Murray McCune, a Tulsa architect who updated Westhope in 1965. [4] By mid-2017, the owner of the house was Barbara Tyson, a member of the family that founded Tyson Foods Inc. [8] The structure was purchased by Stuart Price in October 2021, who made extensive renovations including re-waterproofing and tuckpointing cracked blocks. [3]

The house is one of only three Wright structures in Oklahoma, the others being in Bartlesville: the Harold Price Jr. House and the 19-story Price Tower. [3]

See also

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References

  1. "National Register of Historical Places - Oklahoma - Tulsa County". National Park Service.
  2. "Architecture". Price Tower Arts Center. Retrieved January 18, 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Westhope, the iconic Tulsa home built by Frank Lloyd Wright, now up for sale". Grace Wood, Tulsa World, April 19, 2023. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
  4. 1 2 "Throwback Tulsa: Remembering Frank Lloyd Wright's Westhope and Price Tower". Tulsa World, April 9, 2023. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
  5. "Tulsa Landmarks and Famous Places - Westhope."
  6. Thomas S. Hines, "The Wright Stuff", New York Times , September 16, 2009.
  7. Meryle Secrest, Frank Lloyd Wright: A Biography (reprint ed., University of Chicago Press, 1998), ISBN   978-0-226-74414-8, pp. 372. (excerpt available at Google Books).
  8. 1 2 "Throwback Tulsa: A house in Tulsa may have roots in Frank Lloyd Wright's personal tragedy". Debbie Jackson and Hilary Pittman, Tulsa World, July 20, 2017. Retrieved January 16, 2021.