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Westhope

Coordinates: 36°6′35″N 95°57′14″W / 36.10972°N 95.95389°W / 36.10972; -95.95389
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Westhope
Westhope
Westhope is located in Oklahoma
Westhope
Westhope is located in the United States
Westhope
Map
Interactive map showing Westhope’s location
Location3700 S. Birmingham Tulsa, Oklahoma
Coordinates36°6′35″N 95°57′14″W / 36.10972°N 95.95389°W / 36.10972; -95.95389
Built1929
ArchitectFrank Lloyd Wright
Architectural styleTextile Block
NRHP reference No.75001575[1]
Added to NRHPApril 10, 1975

Westhope, also known as the Richard Lloyd Jones House, is a Frank Lloyd Wright designed Textile Block home that was constructed in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1929. This was Wright's only Textile Block house outside of California.[2][verification needed] The client, Richard Lloyd Jones, was Wright's cousin and the publisher of the Tulsa Tribune.

This building is located at 3704 South Birmingham Avenue.[3] The home has five bedrooms and five baths.[3] It encompasses 10,405 square feet on 1.5 acres.[3] Besides the textile blocks stacked in vertical columns, the home features 5,200 panes of glass covering almost half the exterior of the structure.[3][4] It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places listings in Tulsa County, Oklahoma on April 10, 1975 under National Register Criteria C, g, with an NRIS number of 75001575.[5]

Westhope is the location of a frequently-quoted anecdote about Wright: Richard Lloyd Jones called Wright in the middle of a storm to complain that the roof was leaking on his desk, and Wright replied, "Richard, why don't you move your desk?"[6][7] But Jones’ wife Georgia had an equally memorable perspective regarding the leaking structure: she said, “This is what we get for leaving a work of art out in the rain.”[8]

Jones paid over $100,000 for construction, even though the original budget was $30,000.[3] After Jones' death in 1963, his widow traded houses with M. Murray McCune, a Tulsa architect who updated Westhope in 1965.[4] By mid-2017, the owner of the house was Barbara Tyson, a member of the family that founded Tyson Foods Inc.[8] The structure was purchased by Stuart Price in October 2021, who made extensive renovations including re-waterproofing and tuckpointing cracked blocks.[3]

The house is one of only three Wright structures in Oklahoma, the others being in Bartlesville: the Harold Price Jr. House and the 19-story Price Tower.[3]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "National Register of Historical Places - Oklahoma - Tulsa County". National Park Service.
  2. ^ "Architecture". Price Tower Arts Center. Retrieved January 18, 2021.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g "Westhope, the iconic Tulsa home built by Frank Lloyd Wright, now up for sale". Grace Wood, Tulsa World, April 19, 2023. 19 April 2023. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
  4. ^ a b "Throwback Tulsa: Remembering Frank Lloyd Wright's Westhope and Price Tower". Tulsa World, April 9, 2023. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
  5. ^ "Tulsa Landmarks and Famous Places - Westhope."
  6. ^ Thomas S. Hines, "The Wright Stuff", New York Times, September 16, 2009.
  7. ^ Meryle Secrest, Frank Lloyd Wright: A Biography (reprint ed., University of Chicago Press, 1998), ISBN 978-0-226-74414-8, pp. 372. (excerpt available at Google Books).
  8. ^ a b "Throwback Tulsa: A house in Tulsa may have roots in Frank Lloyd Wright's personal tragedy". Debbie Jackson and Hilary Pittman, Tulsa World, July 20, 2017. 20 July 2017. Retrieved January 16, 2021.
  • Storrer, William Allin. The Frank Lloyd Wright Companion. University Of Chicago Press, 2006, ISBN 0-226-77621-2 (S.227)
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