Perhaps it’s the leisurely route to Cedar Rock. Perhaps it’s summer stillness, surrounding trees, sloping lawn, the nearby Wapsipinicon River. Or perhaps it’s simply the house that causes tourists to fall silent.
Of the 10 Frank Lloyd Wright homes in Iowa, Cedar Rock is the only one that wears the official red rectangular emblem with his initials. On a muggy afternoon, it is this logo on a brick corner by the breezeway that the guide first mentions to the tour group.
Those who come to this treasure exit Iowa Highway 20 onto State Road 282 toward the town of Quasqueton. They park their cars by a low-lying visitor center that hints at Wright’s concepts, for the building with “horizontal lines to reflect midwestern prairie landforms” blends into the landscape.
The center’s interior contains information about the life and work of America’s famous architect and also displays memorabilia of Lowell and Agnes Walter. The couple hired Wright to draft plans for their summer home and for its furnishings.
Giving him carte blanche, they asked him to create furniture and to select carpets, draperies, accessories–even the plants. As a result, the Walter residence emerges as one of Wright’s most complete designs. Before they died, the Walters established a trust fund for the property’s perpetual maintenance. Thus, visits here are free of charge.
From the visitor center, a tractor-driven wagon transports tourists on a slow-paced journey. The wagon passes columns (marking the original entrance) bearing the Walter family name. The wagon moves by autumn crocus, moonflower vines, cedar trees, then heads up a curving drive to the rock-red dwelling placed on a limestone bluff.
As one of Wright’s Usonian house types, Cedar Rock follows the premise of living simply and close to nature. Minus attic, basement and everything termed “unnecessary,” a Usonian design features concrete floors. Hot water pipes embedded in the floor distribute heat, and, therefore, floors occasionally make knocking sounds in the large main room that adjoins a low-ceilinged entryway. Indeed, ceilings in most rooms measure but 7 feet, 3 inches tall, and all Wright-invented furniture sits near to the floor.
In this main room, “The Garden Room,” height or lack of it is not readily apparent. It takes a moment to notice the lowered Steinway grand with casters removed to make it even lower. The Garden Room, a combination living/dining area, covers more than 900 square feet. A divider, surrounded by tropical plants, sections the space. The Garden Room boasts three glass walls, shaded by broad overhangs with upturned edges.
In every room either skylights or clerestory windows let in light and release warm air trapped near the ceiling. And because Wright disliked dangling lighting fixtures, he installed recessed lighting that gives the effect of natural illumination, even after dark.
While views of wooded valley, of the river, of mowed lawn and perfect flower plots dominate the Garden Room, the guide draws attention to built-in divan, built-in buffet and dining table and dining chairs constructed of plywood.
The “work space” or kitchen with the lone high ceiling, looks small and angular. Efficient, the kitchen–like the house–has no smells and conveys the odor of impersonality.
A long hallway offers storage space and runs the entire length of the bedroom wing. Here, Lowell Walter stored his hunting equipment, and he and his wife aligned their hardbound books on open shelves. Three stark bedrooms, with a zenlike atmosphere, reveal beds topped with the off-white fabric that unites each piece of covered furniture. The master bedroom has a fireplace, and all bedrooms have walnut wardrobes, as walnut is the sole wood-of-choice in the residence. Movable lavatories highlight the two bathrooms. Interestingly, the pullman-type fixtures with sink, toilet and bathtub incorporated into one compact unit were never duplicated in any other Wright house.
Cedar Rock, completed in 1950, came late in the architect’s career, for he died less than a decade later. Lowell Walter actually contacted him in 1942, and the Cedar Rock plans appeared in Ladies Home Journal (1945). Such plans show the carport connecting the house with the maid’s quarters to the far right. Today, visitors, after peering into these quarters, can walk to a cottage–moved to this spot by Wright’s decree–where the Walters stayed during construction of their home. Near the cottage, visitors see a “council fire,” where a semi-circular wall about waist high skirts an outdoor hearth, perfect for the Walters’ barbecues.
Lowell Walter, a Quasqueton native, owned the Iowa Road Builders Co., but in 1944 after selling his business here, turned to his childhood haunts, buying more than 5,000 acres. The Cedar Rock site encompasses only 11 of those acres, and includes steps that lead by a fish pool end at river’s edge and a pavilion. Built of the same materials as the residence, the pavilion spans an enormous boulder. A guest room with a fireplace, kitchenette, bathroom and screened-in porch occupies the second level while the lower level has storage for a boat.
Currently the wooden power boat that Walter owned rests beside the visitor center, and when the wagon returns tourists to this starting point, 14 diverse individuals regard mementos with new interest. They study pictures of the Walters and samples of the couple’s silverware. Now swatches of the cloth used in the furniture has fresh significance, as does the video program that plays continually. It examines Wright’s contributions and details his philosophy. Believing that architecture can never be something apart from life, he said: “The core of architectural expression is organic. It lies within the building in the sense of space, and within that sense of space you become either one with it and blessed by it, or you miss it and trample it and go away without feeling anything.”
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Cedar Rock lies about 30 miles east of Waterloo and approximately 60 miles west of Dubuque, Iowa. The Walter Residence and the Visitor Center are open from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday (closed Monday), May 1-Oct. 31. More information: call 319-934-3572.
