LIFE

Wade House celebrates Frank Lloyd Wright's 150th birthday

USA TODAY NETWORK - Wisconsin
) Wade House celebrates the 150th birthday of Frank Lloyd Wright on June 8th with an exhibit opening, reception, lecture and book signing from 6 to 9 p.m. Photo courtesy of The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Museum of Modern Art, Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library. Columbia University, New York.)

GREENBUSH - In 2017, Wade House Historic Site will celebrate the 150th birthday of famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright with season-long exhibits, lectures, and educational activities focusing on Wright’s life and work in Wisconsin and his relationship with Sheboygan carriage collector and restoration expert Wesley W. Jung. 

The next event is a 150th Birthday Celebration from 6 to 9 p.m. on Thursday, June 8. The festivities will include an exhibit opening, lecture and book signing. 

The “Frank Lloyd Wright:  A Wisconsin Original” exhibit will open at 6 p.m. Activities include: 

  • The Wright Carriage Exhibit: A display of horse-drawn carriages owned and used by Wright from the Site’s Wesley W. Jung Carriage Museum collection including Wright’s 1890 roof-seat omnibus.
  • A Taliesin Album: An exhibit featuring rare photographs from 1911-12 of the construction of Taliesin, prior to its substantial destruction by fire in 1914. 
  • Young Masters Workshop: Architectural toys, books and activities for children located in the museum including sets of Wright’s beloved Froebel blocks which first captured the famed architect’s imagination as a child and influenced his future work.

The exhibit opening will be followed by a beer and light hors d’oeuvres reception which will precede a 7 p.m. lecture by Ron McCrea. McCrea, author of Building Taliesin: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Home of Love and Loss, will describe the love affair and personal drama of Wright and Mamah Borthwick Cheney that led to the creation of the first Taliesin, their “Shining Brow” hillside retreat near Spring Green, Wisconsin, in 1911.

McCrea’s presentation will include many never-before-published photos and recent discoveries. A book signing will follow the program. Copies of McCrea’s Building Taliesin: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Home of Love and Loss will be available for purchase in the Wade House gift shop.

Author and award-winning newspaper journalist Ron McCrea, of Madison, will speak about his book "Building Taliesin: Frank Lloyd Wright's Home of Love and Loss" on the evening of Thursday, June 8th at Wade House.

Ron McCrea is an award-winning newspaper journalist who has appeared in Frank Lloyd Wright documentaries including the Travel Channel’s “Monumental Mysteries,” the E! Entertainment Network’s “Mysteries & Scandals,” and the British Broadcasting Corporation’s “Frank Lloyd Wright: Murder, Myth and Modernism.”

He publishes regularly in the Frank Lloyd Wright Quarterly magazine, and lectures in Wisconsin for his publisher, the Wisconsin Historical Society Press. A second Wright book by Ron, Frank Lloyd Wright and the Power of Women, is due for publication in 2018.

The “Frank Lloyd Wright 150th Birthday Celebration” will take place at the Wade House Visitor Center located at W7965 Highway 23 in Greenbush, halfway between Sheboygan and Fond du Lac. Admission is $5 per adult. For more information, visit wadehouse.org or call 920-526-3271.

Wade House Historic Site is one of 12 historic sites and museums owned and operated by the Wisconsin Historical Society.