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The Height
of Audacity
Copyright 2011,
Lowell Cross
assigned to Steinway and Sons Owners' Magazine
Iowa Sites
Douglas Grant
Mason City
Oskaloosa
Quasqueton
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 The tour guide didn't accompany us, but
encouraged us to walk down to the boathouse designed by Wright to hold
Lowell Walter's boat. It was hard to try to picture something like
this in 1950; it is nicer than a number of boat houses that I have seen
today. Complete with rails and an electric winch to haul his boat from
the water, there is a great deck above and even a small office, complete
with fireplace and sleeping quarters. I can only imagine how nice this would have been back
then!
I have had the
pleasure of having now visited more than a dozen Frank Lloyd Wright-designed
structures, from his original
Home and Studio in Oak Park, Illinois, to a
gas station in Cloquet, Minnesota, to a home in
Atherton, California, and
many more in between. Each trip and each visit gives me more insight
into the man and into his incredible designs. Each visit to another
building also gives me
greater appreciation for an architectural style that is absolutely unequaled;
Cedar Rock was certainly no exception. Upon his death in 1981, Lowell
Walter donated to the Iowa Conservation Commission and the people of the State of Iowa his beloved Cedar Rock.
Originally built at a cost of about $150,000, it has been taken care of
through a trust fund and managed by the
Iowa DNR. (Not being owned
privately is what allows visitors to take the pictures that would not
normally be allowed... or to play the Steinway as I did.) That trust
is now running precipitously low on funds. I hope that this well-preserved
example of Wright's work will not succumb to the same fate as many of his
other structures. And if you have not yet been to Quasqueton, this is
definitely a place well worth the visit!
Read about the rest of our tour on the
Cedar Rock page! |
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