Frank Lloyd Wright’s Smallest House—A Doghouse—Is Now On Display
Frank Lloyd Wright—the prolific architect behind the Guggenheim Museum in New York, Fallingwater in Pennsylvania, the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo—is also responsible for a lesser-known structure: the Doghouse in Jim Berger’s Backyard.
Little Jim Berger of San Anselmo, California, had just moved into a house designed by Wright himself when he took a look out at his backyard and figured his best four-legged friend, Eddie, should be given the same privileges.
So, the boy set out to write a letter to the architect himself to ask if he could extend the favor to his dog and construct a house for him too. In the note, Berger gave the dog’s measurements so that Wright would have an easier time designing the house.
In his response, Wright revered the idea of building a house for Eddie as an “opportunity,” but said he was too busy at the moment to take on anything new and that would only be able to do the project in November. On the back, as with all of the letters he receives asking for something to be built, was a rough sketch of the doghouse.
OMFG - Frank Lloyd Wright designed a triangular dog kennel called Eddie's House. This makes me happy. #psychodography pic.twitter.com/Z1J6Rix79G
— Myles Jackman - Obscenity Lawyer (@MylesJackman) November 18, 2014
Wright set out to complete the project as promised to young Berger, following the same methods as he would for large-scale projects and enlisting the aid of his assistants at Taliesin. The final work was a four-square-foot structure with a triangular roof that jutted out, called Eddie’s House. Wright didn’t charge Berger nor did he fall suscept to his attempts to pay him with this paper route money.
The F LL Wright dog house:
— Javier Alonso Madrid (@javieralonsomad) February 19, 2021
Eddie's House was a doghouse designed by Frank Lloyd Wright as an addition to the Robert Berger House.#franklloydwright #architect #doghouse pic.twitter.com/dXBr74yjC3
The doghouse was made from the same cedarwood and Philippine mahogany used for Berger’s own abode. Unfortunately, the pooch still preferred the larger of Wright’s structures on the property.
Eventually, the doghouse was discarded but the family held onto the drawings and had it recreated in 2010 before donating the kennel to the County of Marin.
In a fitting end to the journey of Eddie’s House, the smallest creation of Wright’s now resides in his largest creation, the Marin County Civic Center.
[via The Architect’s Newspaper and Smithsonian Magazine, images via various sources]
