Retirement……LOVE IT!

There is one more place we visited in Springfield, Illinois: The Dana Thomas House (also known as the Susan Lawrence Dana House and Dana House). It was designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright and built between 1902-1904 for Susan Lawrence Dana.

Susan Lawrence Dana was an independent-minded woman and heiress to a fortune which included silver mines in the Rocky Mountains. When she was introduced to Frank Lloyd Wright in 1902, she knew she had found an architect that would match her desire to stress congruence between the interior of a building with its surroundings.

The home was to reflect Dana’s flamboyant personality and her love of Japanese prints and drawings which Wright also admired. The home was designed for both display and entertaining.

Dana lived in the home from 1904 until 1928. Because of financial constraints in her later years, she closed the main house in 1928 and moved into a small cottage on the grounds. She struggled with age related dementia in the 1940s when her home and it’s contents were sold to Charles C. Thomas.

Thomas was a successful medical publisher, and lived in the home from 1944 until his death in 1969. Thomas and his wife maintained the house’s original furnishings and design. Their estate sold the home and its furnishings to the state of Illinois in 1981.

The home became a state historic site under the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency which restored it in 1987-1990. The restoration returned it to its 1910 appearance. The home is believed to contain one of the most intact Frank Lloyd Wright designed interiors in the United States.

Here are a few photos of the exterior of the home.

The taking of photographs inside the house is not allowed. 😢 However, if you are really curious, you can Google it and see some beautiful pictures of the interior. I will warn you, though. Even though the pictures of the interior are gorgeous, they do NOT do it justice. You really MUST go see it in person! The tour guides are so knowledgeable and share SO much interesting information about the house.

We have been in the STL since October 4th. We are spending some time with our parents and families. We are planning on heading south for the winter on November 7th. Therefore, it will be about a month before I publish another post.

So, for now ….. “On the Road Again!”

Betty