Hanna House

Hanna House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, was on the list of things Mary gave me with to do in the Bay Area. The house on Stanford's property is only open four times a month, so you have to book the tour weeks in advance, and finally Sunday, April 18 arrived, and Nick and I went, tickets in hand.

The docent Gretchen did a great job depicting the special relationship Wright and the Hannas had. Both were interested in building a home that would grow with the family. It was fascinating to see how the house went through pre-planned phases, which I might have slightly wrong: phase 1 (regular family home with large playroom overlooking the valley), phase 2 (guest house for visitors and a hobby area for Mr. Hanna were built), phase 3 (outdoor summer house for grilling with teenagers was added), and phase 4 (3 bedrooms were transformed into a master bedroom, the master bedroom transformed into a spacious study, and playroom transformed into a beautiful formal dining room). There were so many interesting facts about the house; I'll probably end up buying the coffee table book with photos and stories before I leave here.

The day was gorgeous, and Nick and I both enjoyed the one-hour tour. I remember how the summer dad had a fellowship at the Newberry Library, we all visited him in Chicago, and he took us around a number of Frank Lloyd Wright houses--snapping photos of the houses all the time and insulting us when as soon as we would get into the photos and smile, he'd put the camera away:( Well, ha, now Nick took a nice photo of me smiling in front of a FLW home; unfortunately, it was so bright when I took the photo of Nick I didn't realize that half the photo I took of him was of my finger and not foliage!