November 2024 Auction Ends Thursday, November 21st, 5pm Pacific
Large Frank Lloyd Wright archive related to several of the architect's projects in the mid-1950s, most notably Degnan's Kitchen in Yosemite National Park and the Arch Oboler Complex in Malibu, California. Degnan's Kitchen was commissioned by Frank Donohue, owner of a restaurant in Yosemite National Park who reached out to Wright to design a new building. The proposed restaurant project was ultimately deemed too futuristic by the National Park Service, however, and rejected. Archive includes two letters signed by Wright, five telegrams from him and approximately two dozen pages of retained documents.
In 1954, Frank Donohue met with Aaron Green, Wright's representative in California, to design a new building for Degnan's Kitchen. Green in turn relayed the prospective commission to Wright, stating in a retained letter, ''I was elated at the prospect of your doing his project......so was he......and we hope you will be. Yosemite is about 200 miles from San Francisco...'' According to the retained letters, plans were made on the proposed project. In a typed letter signed by Wright on 28 April 1954, he states, ''Dear Aaron: We are sending the documents in evidence on the Yosemite thing to you. Kindly call Donohoe in and show them to him.''
While Donohue was apparently happy with these plans, the Yosemite National Park Director, Conrad Worth felt that the building (which he famously derided as a ''a mushroom dome type of thing'') was too futuristic and denied the plans. Green shoots off an angry and somewhat humorous missive to Wright as a result, writing in a retained letter, ''The Director of the National Park Dept., Conrad Worth, had dishonored himself by deciding not to keep faith with agreements, written and verbal, made with Donohoe's organization as to the scope and nature of his concession at Yosemite...the Director has assumed the onus of sitting in judgement on your design and declares to is not in sympathy with the existing buildings, (as if that were to be desired), and that it would of itself become a competing attraction in the park (you should feel proud of that). Donohoe and his legal counsel believe this to be a direct result of top level political influence wielded by his competitors who have openly submitted written protest against your design...''
Other correspondence in the lot mentions the Guggenheim Museum, San Francisco's Butterfly Bridge, and also the Arch Oboler Complex, a Malibu home destroyed in wildfires in 2018. In a typed letter signed to Green dated 4 November 1954, Wright states, ''Dear Aaron: The very good apricots 'am all gone, suh'. Your good letter contents noted. Better hang on to Oboler for a fee and to help...''
Archive also includes four additional telegrams sent by Wright for a total of five, an additional unsigned letter by Wright and approximately two dozen pages of retained letters and documents. Signed letters on Taliesin West stationery measure 11'' x 8.5''. Telegrams measures 8'' x 5.875''. Very good condition.
Frank Lloyd Wright Correspondence Regarding Yosemite National Park's Degnan's Kitchen & the Arch Oboler Complex -- Includes 2 Letters Signed by Wright, 5 Telegrams & Numerous Retained Letters
Click above for larger image.