Chicago - Frank Lloyd Wright and Ernest Hemingway

July 14

I had forgotten just how flat Illinois is.  The only things that stood out on the landscape were the silos and occasionally an oversized barn.  And then I came to Chicago.  We think we have traffic in the Bay area!

Gypsy got me into Oak Park right in front of the Hemingway Museum without once looking at a map. God, I love technology!

Put $2 worth of quarters  in the meter and spent a few hours puttering thru Hemingway's life including a rare documentary which showed way too much bullfighting and wild game hunting, his two passions. That left me wondering why I like his writing so much.

Hemingway was born here in 1898

Next visited his birthplace and boyhood homes, just a few blocks apart from each other in this beautiful Oak Park neighborhood which reminds me so much of Willow Glen in San Jose.

Heningway's father was a physician and his mother an accomplished musician who gave piano and voice lessons and wrote original musical scores and sang professionally.  According to the tour guide she earned $2000 a month to her husband's $500.  Of course he was often paid in chickens and what not which are hard to evaluate. Money is power and she totally dominated her husband.
All of this leaves us amateur psychologists wondering if this is why Ernest had little regard for his mother and was married four times.

Ernest is on the right in this photo taken before the last two of the six children were born.

Handily, the Frank Lloyd Wright studio and home were just a few blocks away so I moved the Doodle to a residential area with no parking meters. Duh!

Makes you wonder if these two giant historic figures ever met, living in the same neighborhood at the same time.

Frank Lloyd Wright architect studio

His home is on the same lot but around the corner and was built before he developed his distinctive Prairie style. It was built in 1889 with a $5K loan from his employer with a non-competition clause Frank later broke.

Both are filled with the natural materials of stonework and wood which were considered not refined enough for the Victorian homes.

 

The living room shows his new concept of open space. No nooks and crannies of Victorian homes  for him. This idea has returned in the Great Rooms in many of today's homes where the kitchen and living room are all one.

Afterward took the walking tour and it was easy to see why Wright was ready for a different style home.  The neighborhood is mostly Victorian Queen Annes with all their ornamentation. It must have been refreshing for people of that time who could afford something different to hire someone with his vision.

There are nine Frank Lloyd Wright homes on Forest Ave sandwiched in between Victorians. I can only imagine what the strait laced ladies of the day must have initially thought of them. No geegaws, no fancy trim.



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Oak Park is a lovely neighborhood and I was enchanted. I walked away the afternoon, up and down the peaceful streets feeling like I was almost in Willow Glen again.

Ended up down on Lake Ave in restaurant row in a noodle place called The Noodle Place.
Now I was back home with a good Asian dinner.

Getting out of Chicago at rush hour was no picnic. My GPS, Gypsy, decided to have some fun with me. She directed me to a street which had a huge sign clearly stating "no outlet". Taking it anyway because I trusted her and thought she must know something I don't, at the end I spent 10 minutes maneuvering to turn around from the dead end and head back out where she insisted I go to the next street, make a left and another left back to the same street!
I could just imagine her sitting in her office with her feet up, tossing back bon bons, laughing at me.
So we had a serious discussion right then and there, fool me once, etc. I put in the address of the Hemingway museum and she promptly got me out of town toward Indiana.