Frank Lincoln Wright :: essays research papers

Frank Lincoln Wright ".......having a good start not only do I fully intend to be the greatest architect who has yet lived, but fully intend to be the greatest architect who will ever live. Yes, I intend to be the greatest architect of all time." - Frank Lloyd Wright 1867-1959 CHILDHOOD Born in Richland Center, in southwestern Wisconsin, on June 8, 1867 (Sometimes reported as 1869) Frank Lincoln Wright (Changed by himself to Frank Lloyd Wright) was raised in the influence of a welsh heritage. The Lloyd-Jones family, his mother's side of the family, had great influence on Mr. Wright throughout his life. The family was Unitary in faith and lived close to each other. Major aspects within the Lloyd-Jones family included education, religion, and nature. Wright's family spent many evenings listening to William Lincoln Wright read the works of Emerson, Thoreau, and Blake outloud. Also his aunts Nell and Jane opened a school of their own pressing the philosophies of German educator, Froebel. Wright was brought up in a comfortable, but certainly not warm household. His father, William Carey Wright who worked as a preacher and a musician, moved from job to job, dragging his family across the United States. His parents divorced when Wright was still young. His mother Anna (Lloyd-Jones) Wright, relied heavily on upon her many brothers sisters and uncles, and was intellectually guided by his aunts and his mother. Before her son was born, Anna Wright had decided that her son was gong to be a great architect. Using Froebel's geometric blocks to entertain and educate her son, Mrs. Wright must have struck genius her son possessed. Use of the imagination was encouraged and Wright was given free run of the playroom filled with paste, paper, and cardboard. On the door were the words, SANCTUM SANCTORUM (Latin for: place of inviolable privacy). Mr. Wright was seen as a dreamy and sensitive child, and cases of him running away while working on the farmlands with some uncles is noted. This pattern of running away continued throughout his lifetime. WRIGHT'S FIRST BREAK In 1887, at the age of twenty, Frank Lloyd Wright moved to Chicago. During the late nineteenth century, Chicago was a booming, crazy place. With an education of Engineering from the University of Wisconsin, Wright found a job as a draftsman in a Chicago architectural firm. During this short time with the firm of J. Lyman Silsbee, Wright started on his first project, the â€Å"Hillside Home† for his aunts, Nell and Jane. Impatiently moving forward, Wright got a job at one of the best known firms in Chicago at the time, Adler and Sullivan.