When S. P. “Pearl” Elam and his wife toured Taliesin in 1948, they told Wright’s chief draftsman, John Howe, that they were interested in building a home.

Built

1950

Client

S. P. Elam

Address

309 21st St. S. W.

Status

Open as a bed and breakfast.

Wright met with them immediately. The result, which Wright designed having only seen photographs of the lot and never setting foot on the property, is the second largest Usonian home he ever built. A disagreement during the construction caused Wright to leave Elam to finish the kitchen on his own. Nevertheless, the home’s upswept roof and cantilevered balcony, supported by massive limestone piers trucked from a quarry near Taliesin, makes it one of Wright’s most iconic designs.