The Wright Connection

Haven't we met be 4?  On November 23, 2011, Facebook, the popular social media site, announced its research that only 4.74 degrees separate people.   In other words, you are only four acquaintances away from anyone else in the world.  
I thought of Facebook's announcement last Friday when my husband, my daughter and I visited Frank Lloyd Wright's Oak Park neighborhood just west of Chicago.  I considered the tenuous connection between myself and the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959).  Even though Wright lived his life for the most part in Spring Green, Wisconsin; Chicago, Illinois and Scottsdale, Arizona, far away from my hometown of Stafford, Kansas, and irregardless of the fact that he died in 1959 when I was just a kindergartener, there is a slim connection between us.   

My daughter Jillian and my husband Tim at the entrance to
Unity Temple in Oak Park, Illinois

The connection is this:  Wright hired a young architect named Don Buel Schuler in 1916.  Schuler worked for Wright for several years and then returned to Wichita, his hometown, where he launched his own architectural firm.  Eight years later in 1924, Schuler patterned the plans he drew for the United Methodist Church of Stafford, Kansas, after Unity Temple, the church Wright built in Oak Park, Illinois.  That brings this connection full circle to me for the Stafford United Methodist Church was an influential part of my childhood.
   

Wright's geometric lamps illuminate his Unity Temple's exterior.

Don Buel Schuler (1888-1967) was the son of a Wichita building contractor named Buel Schuler.  Undoubtedly, his father's work inspired a love of architecture in Don for upon his graduation from Fairmount College (now known as Wichita State University) in 1911, he headed to the University of Illinois where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in architectural engineering in June 1916.  While attending the University of Illinois, Schuler spent his summer vacations working for Francis Berry Byrne and Walter Burley Griffin, two Chicago architects who had trained with Frank Lloyd Wright.  In the summer of 1915, Frank Lloyd Wright visited Griffin's office, searching for a draftsman to oversee a home Wright was building in Wichita, Kansas for Elsie N. and Henry J. Allen.  There Wright found exactly the architect he needed and promptly hired Don Buel Schuler.

Sanctuary of the United Methodist Church in Stafford, Kansas
(photo courtesy of Kim Fritzemeier)

Wright's influence is obvious in the design Schuler created for the Stafford church which was built between 1925-1927.  See how reminiscent of Wright's simple, geometric shapes are the stained glass "sunlight boxes" and lamps that brighten the sanctuary ceiling of my hometown church.  

Unity Temple
875 Lake Street, Oak Park, Illinois

In fact, the plans for Stafford United Methodist Church draw heavily upon those created by Wright for the Unity Temple of Oak Park, Illinois which built in 1906-1908.  The similarities between the sanctuaries of the Stafford United Methodist Church and Wright's Unity Temple are striking.  Both have footprints that are almost square instead of the traditional Gothic style shaped like a cross with a long nave intersected by a transept and a choir loft completing the nave.  Both have sanctuary ceilings that feature stained glass sunlight boxes, although one could argue that the Stafford church's 36 boxes trumps Unity Temple's 25.  

United Methodist Church
Stafford, Kansas
(photo courtesy of the Kansas Sampler Foundation)

On the other hand, the Stafford Methodist building committee who hired Schuler to create their church rejected his concrete Prairie style exterior in favor of an English Collegiate Gothic style that is quite different from Wright's vision for Unity Temple.  The entrance to the Stafford church dominates its facade while Wright practically hid the doors to the Unity Temple behind a concrete wall.

Planters and a wall hide the stairs leading up to the main entrance of Unity Temple

In addition, Unity Temple sanctuary has a double balcony on its rear and side elevations while the Stafford sanctuary has only one balcony circling its three sides.  Still, I found it incredible to see how much Wright's Prairie style of architecture had influenced Schuler's design.  

Unity Temple's west facade

For an interesting history and interior photos of the Stafford United Methodist Church, visit Pamela Kingsbury's article, "Secular Meets Sacred", published in the March - April issue of the Kansas Preservation.   Clare Moore's site, Stafford Landmarks, includes information about the Methodist Church's listing on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.  Finally, you might also enjoy a virtual tour of the Unity Temple available on the Internet as well.  

Perhaps only four degrees separates you from Frank Lloyd Wright, too!