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Three pioneering buildings in the Madison area by architect Frank Lloyd Wright have their day in the sun today as officially designated National Historic Landmarks.
They are the First Unitarian Society Meeting House in Shorewood Hills, completed in 1951, and Herbert and Katherine Jacobs Houses I and II, trailblazing private residences built in 1937 and 1944 on Madison's west side.
Starting at 2 p.m. at the Meeting House, 900 University Bay Drive, a celebration will bring together the three Jacobs children, Susan, Elizabeth, and William; the current owners of Jacobs I and II; and original Unitarian "Stonehaulers" who hefted tons of limestone out of a Sauk City quarry to build a historic house of worship.
The National Historic Landmarks were announced by the U.S. Department of the Interior in 2003 and 2004 but their owners never received their plaques or the landmarks their due. Today that will be corrected as Brian McCutchen, a representative of the National Park Service, presents plaques and Sen. Fred Risser, D-Madison, reads a proclamation from Gov. Jim Doyle.
The celebration will be distinctly Wrightian, including a Welsh hymn and recorded words by the great man himself.
There will also be recollections offered by the Jacobs children ("Growing Up Jacobs") and the pastor and parishioners who were first caught up in Wright's mission to bring art, harmony and a distinctly American architecture to the world, using Madison as his laboratory. Jack Holzhueter, a Wright authority, will put it in historical perspective.
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Art for living: The first Jacobs House, a one-story, L-shaped structure built on Toepfer Avenue in six months in 1937, set a high but affordable style for suburban architecture and led to the building of 140 similar Wright "Usonian" homes across the country. It also spawned the "ranch" house and tract home.
At Jacobs I, Wright opened the living space to nature while presenting a private side to the street, and made his first experiments with a carport, track lighting, and warm concrete floors heated by water running through pipes under the slab,...