I've written about John Lloyd Wright, the son of the other famous Lloyd Wright, Frank, on this blog before. JLW was a skilled architect in his own right and started down his road to fame right here in Indiana. LaPorte County to be more specific. In fact, other than the Arcades Hotel he designed (and was razed) at the Indiana Dunes State Park in Porter County, all of his work during his independent early years from
1923-1946 was done in LaPorte County, and mostly in Long Beach. Recently JLW received accollades previously reserved only for his father when four of his designs were first listed in the National Register of Historic Places this year. So here are the earliest two houses......
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| Hoover-Timme House, 1929 |
Wright was commissioned to design a home by
Adelaide H. Hoover after she purchased the lot in 1929. Adelaide Hoover was a
widow and private school teacher who lived in Chicago. Mrs. Hoover was born in 1893 in Illinois. She had been married and widowed by the 1920
census. She lived in Hammond, Indiana
during the 1920s and was a school teacher at Wentworth High School. Mrs. Hoover owned the house only a few years
before it was sold to Raynor and Ruth Timme in 1934. Raynor was born in Nebraska in 1900; his
parents were natives of Germany. They
moved to Chicago where Raynor attended school and registered for the draft in
World War 1. He was involved in the
insurance and investment business when he married Ruth Bedford in 1933. They had two adopted children and appeared to
make the Long Beach home their permanent home by 1935.
The Hoover-Timme House is one of the finest
residential examples of the Prairie Style created by John Lloyd Wright during
his career in Long Beach, Indiana. The
son of famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright came to design prominence in his own
right as he developed his design philosophy in the exclusive lake community of
Northwest Indiana. Created in 1929, the
house exhibits the architect’s skill and creativity in creating spaces and
fitting the building into the landscape.
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| Burnham "Pagoda" House, 1934 |
The John and Isabel Burnham House was designed
by John Lloyd Wright in a blended interpretation of the Prairie Style and the International
Style. The house was constructed in 1934
in the Lake Michigan resort community of Long Beach, Indiana for the owners of
a local manufacturing company. The house
is also referred to as the “Pagoda House”.
The house resembles a Japanese pagoda because its five floor levels are
delineated by roofs and because of its position on the Lake Michigan shore. The original owners of the Burnham home were
John and Isabel Burnham. They were close
friends of John and Hazel Wright and frequently attended parties in each
others’ homes. John Burnham was the son of Frederic H. and
Alice Burnham. Frederic established the
Frederic H. Burnham Company, Inc. at 1602 Tennessee Street in Michigan City in
1902. The company is still in
operation. Burnham was attracted to the
area because of the available labor of experienced glove makers. The company became a large manufacturer of gloves
and mittens throughout the United States.
In 1918 the company purchased Tecumseh Facing Mills. John Burnham became president of the company
after his father passed away in about 1928.
His mother, Alice, remained vice president of the company. By 1938 the company had grown to include
three buildings that covered over 40,000 square feet. During World War II the company opened a plant
in Missouri and reached its peak employment of 250 employees.
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