The Frank Lloyd Wright Eugene Van Tamalen Pre-Fab House of 1957
Bernard Pyron
Off
Rosa Road and at the south end of Crestwood which was a cooperative sub
division in the sixties, the Van Tamalen House is at 5817 Anchorage
Road, in Madison, Wisconsin. The Van Tamalen House was the first pre-fab house constructed
from the Marshall Erdman Prefab Design Number One, which Wright and
Erdman thought could be built in 1956 for about $20,000. Five Wright
houses were built from the basic Number One pre-fab design. The Arnold
Jackson House , which was also built in 1956 is
on the South Beltline in Madison is one of the five Number One Pre-Fabs,
but it is built of rock laid in the Wright style. I have been in the house but do not remember much about it.
My
wife Gail and I were in the Van Tamalen House when it was under
construction. See the photos below. I took the color photo below of the
Van Tamalen House in about 1958 after it was completed.
In the early sixties the Van Tamalen House was almost in the woods at the very edge of Madison. I would take my dog Wolfus from our house at 5710 Bittersweet Place in Crestwood and walk about 75 yards into the farm next door to the west and then walk south maybe a quarter of a mile and come out at the Van Tamalen House, which then sat among some trees and brush.
Below: The i nterior of almost finished Eugene Van Tamalen House of 1956. In 1956 when it was under construction it was west of Rosa Road and when the photo below was taken, we walked through mud to get to the house .
Below: Another view of the interior of the Van Tamalen house taken on the same day as the view above.
