Cedar Rock State Park

Quite the random stop in small town Iowa, but seriously you’ve gotta stop! In the same vein a wall drug, the signs leading up intrigue and ultimately suck you in.
We stopped in on our way back from a road trip up north and were drawn to the place by signage that started seemingly when we began to travel south from Minneapolis.
You’re greeted in the visitor center where we learned a bit about Mr. Wright, after which you hop on a tractor and mosey on down to the house.
The guides take you around the property and inside the home for really as long as your heart desires. FLW as we shall affectionately refer to him as, had a very unique style. The inside of the house is very reminiscent of a boat or train car in how the rooms are set up. The open concept was certainly lost on him as the place is quite cramped. The lighting from the roof and the plants that are ever present are quite nice and certainly unique.
Going outside by the water is spectacular and if I were to own such a house, would be the only reason I’d let Mr. LW come and go whenever he pleased (we found out this was one of the requirements for having him design the place). In addition, he chose the dishes and could make changes to the place as he saw fit.
All in all, a cool spot designed by a guy who would be me in an architecture contest. Worth stopping by if you’ve got the time and/​or interest.

It was not exciting terrain along Hwy 20, but the traffic was low and mellow. I could just hang out around 80 – 85 mph — not great for gas mileage, but efficient for getting past a lot of boring corn. And then — I saw a sign for a Frank Lloyd Wright House called «Cedar Rock» — I didn’t even think twice, and headed right there!
It was pretty hot by the time I got to Cedar Rock (
). The next tour was at 3pm — so I removed some layers of gear, put on my flip flops and cooled my jets, perusing the silver and hand blown glass necklaces in the gift shop.
Two more people arrived and the tractor and canopied wagon returned, so I grabbed my ice water and camera and hopped aboard. The house is down a long driveway — the original owners had bought a bit of property near the river that had a right-​of-​way but not direct access to the road (surrounding property has since been acquired). It wasn’t that far away but apparently most people think it’s too far to walk!
The tour was about an hour, with a practiced retelling of story of the design and construction of the house. This is one of the few houses that Frank Lloyd Wright was able to manage top to bottom: he had veto authority on every furnishing in the house, and at this level of control — was happy to put his signature tile into the house itself. It’s been preserved for decades as a tribute to this iconoclast — and it looks pretty comfortable by today’s standards, though the kitchen is a bit small.
The back entrance has two doors separated by a wall — so you can bring in packages and dirty feet through the utility area — or guests into the door that goes into the living area.
Lots of big windows as walls and in the ceiling make this feel like you’re walking out onto a terrace or into the woods. Great in the summer weather but apparently winter heating was not just expensive but nearly impossible, despite radiant heat in the floors.
The walls were constructed of double brick walls — so there was an intentional airspace between — which was utilized for ambient lighting by leaving out bricks and putting in chunks of slag glass with lights inside the airspace:
Lots of built in furniture and specially designed furniture that was modular — you could move around different tables to make bigger tables. Wright selected all the items you see on display here — and specifically required their arrangement (not kidding!). However, I suspect that the outdoor wall thermometer was not one of his choosing (note: 80 degrees in the shade on the east side of the building!)
The piano in the livingroom was not something Wright really wanted — but the owners insisted, so Wright agreed if they would have the legs sawn off so that the piano did not interfere with the flow of the room by being too high. The little table in the foreground is one of the smaller modular tables that could be rearranged into longer rectangular tables. Ottomans and hassocks everywhere, as well as lots of specially designed chairs (two were available for visitors to test out the fit of the special F.L. Wright designed chairs themselves).
I didn’t like the kitchen much — it was almost an afterthought — there is a little utility area off one side for all the hot water heater, plumbing and gas for the radiant heat and sinks/​tubs — but just closed off with a little door. The kitchen had one other item that the owners insisted upon that Wright hated but finally agreed they could put up on display — can you guess what it is (it’s not the scissors!)?
Utility closets are all in one hallway — and quite narrow:
The bathrooms have these combination sink/​over tub/​over toilet deal that you’d see on a steamer ship — this was Wright’s idea of saving space. It doesn’t look much like a tub I’d want for soaking and relaxing!
Though he claimed that it was «better» for married couples to have their own beds to get appropriate sleep, the tour guide speculates that the pair of twin beds in the master bedroom was «revenge of the architect» for the clients’ demands that he didn’t like (you know — like the piano and the ticky tacky in the kitchen):
There was also a lovely fire pit. I liked the view of the bedroom/​livingroom side of the house, maid’s quarters on the far left were set up like an efficiency apartment, I think I’d prefer that bedroom over the rooms inside the main house!
There was even a boathouse/​man cave (since there wasn’t a workshop or den), also set up like an efficiency apartment with small kitchenette, bed and enclosed porch on the river. Special touches like mitered brick corners were everywhere.
My main regret? I didn’t know that there were so many FLW houses farther back east — I would have made that one of the main destinations for this part of the trip!