RiverRock History
Louis Penfield contracted Frank Lloyd Wright in 1952 and in 1953 he built The Penfield House. Shortly after construction started, plans for a new interstate, I-90,also kicked off. The highway was going to take over The Penfield House and property via eminent domain. As a result, the Penfields approached Mr. Wright for a second home design. This home was to be built several hundred feet south of the first home. At this time, the 91-year-old Wright had stopped designing residences and told the Penfields he had enough work to last "the rest of his life!” However, he replied that because Lou was a former client, he was "in under the wire." The Penfields sent off topographical maps and preliminary site plans to Taliesin West; then they waited.
Frank Lloyd Wright died in April of 1959. The family assumed the second design died with him, but to their astonishment, the week of Mr. Wright’s funeral, a mailing tube with drawings arrived from Taliesin. They had been on the drawing board when Wright died. It was designated Project #5909 in the Taliesin Archives and was, quite literally, Frank Lloyd Wright’s last residential commission.
