In 1941, a small group of planners working for the Federal Works Agency’s Division of Defense Housing saw a tremendous opportunity both to provide a quick increase in housing availability and to improve the quality of their design as models for the future of American housing. To this end, they contracted with many of the nation’s leading architects to create innovative designs, only to have their efforts thwarted by those preferring the status quo and opting for short-term economic gain. This article focuses on an event that ultimately led to conflict between two of America’s most forceful figures: Frank Lloyd Wright, arguably America’s most esteemed architect of the twentieth century, and John W. McCormack who, for more than forty years, was one of the most powerful members of the U.S. Congress.
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———. 1942b. National Defense Housing Act—Amendment, Public Law 409, 77th Congress. 15 January to 16 December. U.S. Code Congressional Service, St. Paul: West Publishing Company, 1943, pp. 10-2.
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Architect Wright is coming to plan all year Bousquet’s. 1957. Berkshire Eagle, 12 March, p. 1.
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. 1995. Working with Mr. Wright.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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Bauer, Catherine
. 1985. The dreary deadlock of public housing. In Federal housing policy and programs: Past and present, edited by J. Paul Mitchell, 277-286. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
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Blandford’s man. 1942. Architectural Forum 76 (4): 158.
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Bomb proof city shown as model. 1940. New York Times, 11 November, p. 17.
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Boston Society of Architects (BSA). 1941a. Minutes, 3 March, p. 1.
11.
———. 1941b. Minutes, 8 April, p. 4.
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———. 1941c. Minutes, 4 November, p. 2.
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———. 1941d. Minutes, 2 December, p. 1.
14.
———. 1942. Minutes, 7 April, p. 1.
15.
Committee Hearings of the 77th Congress, 1st Session. 1941. Testimony of Edmund R. Purves, U.S. Senate Committee on Education and Labor, Subcommittee on Defense Housing and Community Facilities, Senate Hearings on Defense Housing 1941-1942, 19 December. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, vol. 674, p. 54.
16.
———. 1941-42. Statement of Senator Harry S. Truman, U.S. Senate Committee on Education and Labor, Subcommittee on Defense Housing and Community Facilities, Senate Hearings on Defense Housing 1941. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, vol. 674, p. 77.
17.
Congressional Record. 1941. Proceedings and Debates of the 77th Cong., 1st Session, 26 November 1941 to 2 January 1942. Vol. 87, pt. 9.
18.
Demountable houses are assured for Pittsfield. 1942. Berkshire Evening Eagle, 22 January, p. 1.
19.
Eleven defense centers to get U.S. housing. 1940. New York Times, 26 November.
20.
Executive Order 9070. 1942. 24 February. Consolidating housing agencies and functions of the government into the National Housing Agency.
21.
Eyes of the building world will be focused on Pittsfield. 1941. Berkshire Evening Eagle, 22 November, p. 11.
22.
Farrell, Edward J. 1962. World War II housing project under attack once again. Berkshire Eagle, 25 August, p. 6.
23.
Federal Works Agency Announces defense housing. 1942. Berkshire Evening Eagle, 7 February, p. 5.
24.
Foreman, Clark. 1941. Letter to Frank Lloyd Wright, 24 October. Frank Lloyd Wright Archives, Taliesin, AZ, Fiche ID No. F049A10.
25.
———. 1946. Letter to the Editor of “Life Magazine,” 15 August. Frank Lloyd Wright Archives, Taliesin, AZ, Fiche ID No. F068C09.
26.
Giedion, Sigfried
. 1967.Space, time and architecture. 5th ed.Cambridge, MA:Harvard University Press.
27.
Government housers meet. 1941. Architectural Forum 75 (7): 8.
28.
Headway and headaches. 1942. Architectural Forum 76 (2): 7.
29.
Houses may go begging for tenants. 1943. Berkshire Evening Eagle, 24 July.
30.
Housing project on one hundred acre tract near Pittsfield, Massachusetts. 1948. Architectural Forum 88 (1): 80-1.
31.
Johnson, Donald L.1990. Frank Lloyd Wright versus America: The 1930s. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
32.
Kimball, R. 1957. Berkshires don’t know Wright from wrong. Berkshire Eagle, 14 March, p. 17.
33.
Lipstadt, Helene
. 2001. Revising Giedion, redefining the international style and preserving “invisible” modernism in Massachusetts. Newsletter of the Society of Architectural Historian45 (3): 8-10.
34.
McCormack, Edward W. 1942. Letter to Frank Lloyd Wright, 22 June. Frank Lloyd Wright Archives, Taliesin, AZ, Fiche ID No. M122B03.
35.
Named to direct defense housing projects: gives up PWA post temporarily. 1940. New York Times, 26 November, p. 12.
36.
Nelson, Garrison. 1999. In the shadow of John McCormack’s past lies new truths. Boston Globe, 25 January, sec. E, pp. 1-2.
37.
New Kensington politics. 1944. Architectural Forum 78 (7): 76.
38.
Northern aid seen in South’s politics. 1946. New York Times, 31 July, p. 48.
39.
Pfeiffer, Bruce B.1988. Frank Lloyd Wright: Treasures of Taliesin: Seventy-six unbuilt designs. Carbondale: University of Southern Illinois Press.
40.
———, ed. 1994. Frank Lloyd Wright collected writings, Vol. 4, 1939-1949. New York: Rizzoli.
41.
Racial tensions found. 1945. New York Times, 1 March, 23.
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Radford, Gail
. 1997. Modern housing for America: Policy struggles in the New Deal era. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
43.
———. 2000. The federal government and housing during the Great Depression. In From Tenements to the Taylor homes, edited by John Bauman, Roger Biles, and Kristin Szylvian, 102-20. University Park: Pennsylvania University Press.
44.
Reed, Peter S.1995. Enlisting modernism. In World War II and the American dream, edited by D. Albrecht, 130. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
45.
Reorganization. 1942. Architectural Forum 76 (3): 137.
46.
Riley, Terence
, and Peter Reed, eds. 1994. Frank Lloyd Wright architect.New York: Museum of Modern Art.
47.
Synder, Baird. 1942. Letter to Frank Lloyd Wright, 23 January. Frank Lloyd Wright Archives, Taliesin, AZ, Fiche ID No. F054A02.
48.
Szylvian, Kristin
. 1994. Bauhaus on trial: Aluminum City Terrace and federal defense housing policy during World War II. Planning Perspectives, 9 (3): 229-54.
49.
———. 1999. Industrial housing reform and the Emergency Fleet Corporation.Journal of Urban History25:647-89.
50.
———. 2000. The federal housing program during World War II. In From Tenements to the Taylor Homes, edited by John Bauman, Roger Biles, and Kristin Szylvian, 121-38. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.
51.
Telegram to Frank Lloyd Wright. 1942. 22 January, from the editor of Pencil Points. Frank Lloyd Wright Archives, Taliesin, AZ, Fiche ID No. P064A09.
52.
U.S. Code Congressional Service. 1942. Congressional Comments: House Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds, National Defense Housing Act Amendment, No. 1457, November 28, 1941. 77th Cong., 2d sess., 16 December 1942 to 15 January 1943.
53.
U.S. Congress
. 1940. The National Defense Housing Act: An Act to Expedite the Provision of Housing in Connection with National Defense and for Other Purposes. 14 October. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
54.
U.S. House of Representatives. 1942. Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds. Hearings on a Bill to Increase by $600,000,000 the Amount Authorized to be Appropriated for Defense Housing Under the Act of October 14, 1940, as Amended. 77th Cong., 2d sess.
55.
U.S. Senate. 1941. Hearings before the Committee on Education and Labor, Subcommittee on Defense Housing and Community Facilities, on H.R. 6128: An Act To Amend The Act Entitled An Act To Expedite The Provision Of Housing in Connection With National Defense and For Other Purposes, approved October 14, 1940, as amended. 18-19 December. 77th Cong., 1st sess. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
56.
Victory Hill plans get final okay. 1970. Berkshire Eagle, 24 April, p. 1.
57.
Wagner, Bernard, et al. 1942. Letter to General Fleming, 29 January. Frank Lloyd Wright Archives, Taliesin, AZ, File No. W132B08.
58.
Wegg, Talbot. 1942a. Letter to Frank Lloyd Wright, 10 January. Frank Lloyd Wright Archives, Taliesin, AZ: Fiche ID No. F049C07.
59.
———. 1942b. Letter to Frank Lloyd Wright, 19 January. Frank Lloyd Wright Archives, Taliesin, AZ: Fiche ID No. F053D05.
60.
———. 1970. FLW versus the USA. AIA Journal, February, pp. 48, 51-2.
61.
———. n.d. Letter to Frank Lloyd Wright. Frank Lloyd Wright Archives, Taliesin, AZ: Fiche ID Nos. W180E04, W180E05.
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Works Progress Administration (WPA). 1937. The WPA guide To Massachusetts. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
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Wright loses job on defense homes. 1942. New York Times, 22 January, p. 23.
66.
Wright, Frank L. 1941. Letter to Clark Foreman, 1 December. Frank Lloyd Wright Archives, Taliesin, AZ, 3 pages, Fiche ID No. F049E08.
67.
———. 1942a. Letter to Edward W. McCormack, 5 February. Frank Lloyd Wright Archives, Taliesin, AZ, Fiche ID No. M122C01.
68.
———. 1942b. Letter to Talbot Wegg, 6 June. Frank Lloyd Wright Archives, Taliesin, AZ, Fiche ID No. F056D09.
69.
Wright, Olgivanna. 1942. Telegram to Frank Lloyd Wright, 25 January. Frank Lloyd Wright Archives, Taliesin, AZ, Fiche ID No. F054A05.
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Wright, R. Llewelyn. 1942. Letter to Frank Lloyd Wright, 22 January. Frank Lloyd Wright Archives, Taliesin, AZ, Fiche ID No. F053E06.
