Price House in Bartlesville, OK

[Roderick Grant]

I met Harold Price, Jr. (along with Brendan Gill) while giving a tour of Hollyhock. I asked about his FLW house. He praised it, but said it was "so big!" I am sure it was Caroline who was in charge of building the house and adding on to it. What surprised me about the house when I visited in the 90s was how intimate it actually was, so much more so than the photos suggested. It is truly one of those FLW houses that has to be experienced firsthand in order to appreciate it fully.

[DRN]

Enlarged twice into a home for him, his wife and two daughters . . . (He did something; something happened to him.)

Life happened. Joe Price was a bachelor when he built the first portion of the Price Studio in 1956-8. Joe married Etsuko in the mid 1960's and an addition was built 1966-8 to house the expanding art collection and provide domestic spaces (a real kitchen, a Japanese dining area, closets for a second person, and a Japanese bath) for Etsuko. The Prices had two daughters and bedrooms were added for them in a tower over the kitchen/dining area in the late 1970's. A den was placed at the top of the tower for Joe and Etsuko to have some downtime. Dates are approximate from a book on Goff and docent comments when I toured the house in 1992.

[Roderick Grant]

After the fire, Joe and Etsuko built a house in Corona Del Mar, CA designed by Bart Prince, published in the book on his work by Christopher Curtis Mead, pp 22-33.

[Tom]

I would have never placed Hillside as late in Wright's career as it is.
Wright's elevation sketches make me think he drew this house in less time than Fallingwater.

(what does Shin'enKan mean?)

[ZacharyMatthews]

Anybody know what the best available existing documentation is for the lost Shin'Enkan?
I know GA did one of those large thin Monographs on it.

Friends of Kebyar published a double Journal on Joe Price's studio - gallery (translated from Balinese, Shin'enKan means 'Home of the Far Away Heart')
the journal has an Essay by David Delong, with an introduction by Robert Bowlby.I think 82 pages of color photos and details of plans.
It is available as a back issue, please follow this link to our Journal order page.

https://friendsofkebyar.com/products/vo ... er-84-2016




Organically
Zachary

[DRN]

We Chatters have been keeping track of surviving Wright clients. I understand Carolyn Price passed away last Fall; is Harold C. Jr. still with us? I believe he would be in his early nineties.

[DRN]

This video made ca.1979 has some footage of the Price Studio, Goff, and the Prices:

https://www.papercitymag.com/home-desig ... den-sides/

(scroll down)

[Roderick Grant]

One of the details about Shin'enKan that fascinated me was the living room ceiling, covered with goose down. I wonder how that aged, and if every morning there were a few feathers scattered about the room.

[DRN]

As I recall the goose down was in a couple of facets of the central clerestory. It looked soft and slightly warm-white when I saw it in March 1992. If any fell, they would have been lost in the white deep fur-like carpeting.
That room was the model of serene for me...quiet, relaxing, completely day lit, or so it seemed, and totally removed from the world around it...if one wanted nature, the Japanese garden or screened balcony were steps away.

[Tom]

Goose down ceiling?!
How does one detail that?
Wonder if it moved with air currents

[SDR]

https://www.reddit.com/r/RoomPorn/comme ... usa_bruce/

[Tom]

On page 4 of this thread structural issues for the Grant House arise.
Heritage Auction has Grant blueprints showing welded back to back steel 'T's
for the mullions supporting the roof perimeter.

[ZacharyMatthews]

Goose down ceiling?!
How does one detail that?
Wonder if it moved with air currents

They were really just feathers, not down. 1.5 to 2 inches long and did ruffle with the wind when it blew through the house

[DRN]

Seeing the H C Price Jr. house video caused me to think of its original owners, who were of my parent's generation.

It has already been noted on Chat that Carolyn Price passed away in 2018:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=11290
https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/name/ ... =190508733

Harold C. Price Jr. died in the late summer of 2020:
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/ex ... id=8257262

Not sure if this 2012 video was linked before...the Price's sons Harold and Joe talk about their parents, the company, and the tower:

https://bartlesvillecf.org/legacy-hall- ... ce-family/

[DRN]

Earlier in this thread, is a discussion of Scott Perkins' great pictorial history of the 20th century architecture of Bartlesville. In that discussion are posted some photos and some drawings of the house Cliff May designed for Mr. & Mrs. Price Sr.
This is a link to additional photos (mostly interiors) of May's Price house...they seem to be from the same photo shoot, making all of these photos by Maynard L. Parker who often contributed photos to House Beautiful magazine:

https://hdl.huntington.org/digital/coll ... 286/rec/81

Photo #2 of 12 shows a 1947 Buick Roadmaster Convertible in the motor court (high resolution on these images, zoom in)
https://hdl.huntington.org/digital/coll ... 287/rec/81

Photo #5 of 12...
https://hdl.huntington.org/digital/coll ... 290/rec/81

...appears to be the room in which this happened:
https://pages.facebook.com/photo.php?fb ... n__=%2B%3D