Florence and down the TennTom!

As promised by Pat here is the Frank Lloyd Wright house we toured in Florence. This house was built in 1939 for the Rosenbaums. The father lived across the street, and gave them the land to build on. His only request was that the house would not block the view of the river from his second floor. They commissioned Wright to design the home. Their requests were to have 1300 sq. ft. of space, a place to put a piano, a large kitchen, and lots of book shelves as Mr. Rosenbaum was a voracious reader.

As you can see the kitchen was not large. However, there were plenty of bookshelves in every room.

When they questioned Wright about the kitchen, he told them they did not need to waste space for a large kitchen. His design gave them all they needed to prepare a meal. As for the book shelves in every room, they would have gotten them if they wanted them or not. Why? Well - it turns out the exterior walls are not structural walls. They are “curtain” walls. The roof system is designed to cantilever from the center portions of the house, and is self supporting. The exterior walls are then built under the roof, and are only 2” thick. Because of their being so thin, they tend to flex, so Wright used bookshelves as “stiff backs” to give then lateral stability. 

The cantilever roofs were one of Wright's many trade marks.  Wright also insisted on designing the furniture for each home. Plywood was one of his favorite materials, and was used extensively throughout his homes. Cabinets, furniture and doors were made of plywood. The chairs you see are reproductions from the original blue prints. Mrs. Rosenbaum did not like the furniture Wright had built for them, so threw them out, and replaced them with new pieces. It was said that she lived in constant fear of Wright coming to their house, and seeing what she had done.  Wright expected his homes to remain the way he designed them.

 It is hard to see in the picture, but Wright also designed the lights. In the ceiling, there are plywood panels with intricate scroll work / cut outs to cover the bare bulb lights. Very labor intensive. Wrights theory was that his houses be mass produced, and sold in a “kit” form.  Many of the parts could be manufactured off site to keep costs down. However, this never happened. The Rosenbaums initial estimate for construction costs was $7,500.00. The house ended up costing double that. Due to numerous problems over the years with water leaks, the house was given to the City, and $700,000.00 was spent of reconstruction.

Wright was very forward thinking for his time with design ideas, but the technology and materials for implementation did not yet exist. His houses were plagued with water leaks and structural issues.

Wright even designed all the windows. All were hand built on site. Many walls of windows disappear into the ceiling, and the roof appears to float out over the top of them. Wright liked lots of glass. In the picture above, the glass in the corner appears to be one piece. I have seen corner glass in many commercial projects, but the inside corner, where the two panes meet, are sealed with a heavy bead of silicone. In this case, the glass appears to be one continuous piece. Wrights trick??? Have the glass miter cut so the corner fits together without a visible seam. When the City did the reconstruction on this house, they had to replace some of this corner glass. They could not locate anyone who could miter cut the glass. This is the last original corner glass in this house. 

We're back on the river and headed down the Tenn Tom to Mobile Bay, where we will get our first taste of salt water. We ran into these kids yesterday in the Fulton lock. They started in Pittsburgh, and are headed “as far as they can get” - or “wherever” as she put it. This is her “boat” and her second male crew member. We pulled into a small marina for the night at Smithville, 16 miles down stream from the lock. After a trip to town in the courtesy SuckZuzki for dinner and a WalMart stop, we returned to find them puttering into the marina after dark. Brave kids - or stupid?

When we left Grand Harbor, to start down the Tenn Tom, it started out as a narrow “ditch”. The Army Corps dug this canal in the 1970’s / 1980’s as a short cut to the Gulf. It cut off 700 miles from using the Mississippi.  More dirt was moved during this project than was moved building the Panama Canal. A ways down, it opened up into Bay Springs Lake.

 Bay Springs Lake is a “finger lake”. It has a ton of coves and embayments to pull into. We spent the night here on Tuesday, anchored out with the CBAY, a 39’ Bayliner we met. You can see our position on the chartplotter.It was a beautiful night at anchor with our new friends Rusty and Jan.

And now the big news!  Admiral Pat has now mastered locking the boat.  She drove it in and out of the last three locks!  Sorry - no pictures.  I was way too busy tending to the 1st mate chores of hanging fenders, lassoing bollards and doing what the Admiral demanded.  She did marvelously as our friend Linnea would say.  

All for now - gotta get showered and ready for another day.  

Captain Ken