Southern Bungalows

On a recent trip south (and apparently a tour of places named after women) we stopped in Florence, Alabama and Anna, Illinois. After checking out the Wright and Griffin buildings we'd planned on seeing, I wandered the surrounding streets to discover one incredible bungalow after another. If you're ever in the Muscle Shoals area, I recommend visiting Florence. It's a charming college town with an unusually large number of historic districts for its size.

Florence, Alabama

Florence, Alabama

Florence, Alabama

Florence, Alabama

Florence, Alabama

Florence, Alabama

Florence, Alabama

Double squirrel bird bath in Anna, Illinois

Anna, Illinois

Anna, Illinois

Anna, Illinois

Anna, Illinois

OK, it's not a bungalow, but this vintage sign for a bread company in Anna is just too cute...let's call it a bunny-galow.

Who was Bruce Goff?

On our field trip to Graceland cemetery, several of you wondered who Bruce Goff was, his headstone is featured in a previous post about that trip. Here's some Goff information courtesty of Absolute Astronomy:

Goff's accumulated design portfolio of 500 projects (about one quarter of them built) demonstrates a restless, sped-up evolution through conventional styles and forms at a young age, through the Prairie style of his heroes and correspondents Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Sullivan . Finding inspiration in sources as varied as Antoni Gaudi, Balinese music, Claude Debussy , Japanese ukiyo-e prints, and seashells, Goff's mature work had no precedent and he has few heirs other than his former assistant, New Mexico architect Bart Prince. His contemporaries primarily followed tight functionalistic floorplans with flat roofs and no ornament. Goff's idiosyncratic floorplans, attention to spatial effect, and use of recycled and/or unconventional materials such as gilded zebrawood, cellophane strips, cake pans, glass cullet, Quonset Hut ribs, ashtrays, and white turkey feathers, challenge conventional distinctions between order and disorder. Some notable buildings designed by Goff are the Bavinger House in Norman, Oklahoma, the Ruth VanSickle Ford House in Aurora, Illinois ,the Colmorgan House in Glenview, Illinois, and the Pavilion for Japanese Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
His most ambitious built work, the Joe D. Price House and Studio, also known as Shin'enKan, in Bartlesville, Oklahoma was destroyed by arson in 1996. Goff also designed the Searing house in Prairie Village, Kansas

Goff's Duncan House is located deep in the Shawnee National Forest and was a stop along the way during our quick trip south in September. I'll let the pictures do the talking here.