20 Frank Lloyd Wright Houses That Changed AmericaThroughout the architect’s 70-year career, he created new blueprints for living that are still relevant to this dayWith a career that spanned 70 years, there are no shortage of facts about Frank Lloyd Wright to dissect. But it’s not just his buildings that offer fodder for intrigue, the architect was equally a magnet for personal controversy. With three wives and eight children (seven biological, one adopted), Wright spent much of his adult life racking up sensational, though not untrue, headlines like “Suit ends Wright Romance; Sculptress Who Fled With Architect to Japan Obtains Alimony” (New York Times, 1925) or “Issue Warrant for Wright; Architect's Wife Seeks to Re-enter Their Wisconsin Home” (also New York Times, also 1925). Each refers to the personal tumult that seemed to follow the architect through much of his adult life.Scholars have long been tempted to link these fascinating personal dramas to the singular genius of Wright’s work, particularly in how the architect would come to shape 20th-century home life in the U.S. But for all that’s common knowledge about Wright, there are a number of tantalizing details lying just below the surface. Below, ten little-known facts that offer a glimpse into the architect’s fascinating life.The most fascinating facts about Frank Lloyd Wright1. Wright’s childhood nursery was decorated with engravings of English cathedralsIn his autobiography, Wright discusses how his mother prophesied his future as an architect, decorating his nursery with buildings to encourage this development. She also famously purchased her son a Froebel Gifts block set, and used it heavily in his early childhood education.2. Wright abandoned his practice for a year in 1909 to run away with Mamah Borthwick CheneyThe pair were first connected in 1903 when Cheney and her husband Edwin commissioned Wright to build their Oak Park, Illinois, home. The amorous couple abandoned their spouses, children, and lives (and Wright his practice) in 1909 to spend a year together in Europe before relocating to Taliesin in 1911. This elopement would estrange Wright from several of his children for decades to come.The Edwin Cheney house in Oak Park, Illinois Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust3. A disgruntled servant carried out a brutal seven-person murder at Wright’s Taliesin estate in 1914While Wright was away on business in Chicago in 1914, a disgruntled servant at Taliesin set the structure’s living quarters on fire before murdering seven of the home’s residents, including Wright’s then-partner, Mamah Borthwick Cheney. The incident has been dramatized several times, including in an opera called Shining Brow (the English translation of “Taliesin”) that premiered in 1993 and the 2007 novel Loving Frank by Nancy Horan.4. Wright was vehemently against the American Institute of Architects (AIA)Wright was famous for his disdain for other architects, and he refused to join the AIA. According to the biography Frank Lloyd Wright by Meryle Secrest, Wright would refer to it as the “American Institute of Appearances,” and make other disparaging remarks about the institution publicly. “His slights had the effect of maintaining the gulf between himself and other professionals and of adding further weight to the idea of himself as a gifted maverick, an iconoclast,” Secrest writes. Even so, the organization awarded the architect its gold medal in 1949.Wright with Olgivanna Lazovich Hinzenburg ullstein bild5. In 1926, Wright was arrested in violation of the Mann Act, a stipulation that made it illegal for men to transport women across state lines for “immoral” purposesThough his divorce with second wife Miriam Noel was not yet final in 1926, Wright was already in a committed relationship with the woman who would become his third wife, Olgivanna Lazovich Hinzenburg. The pair had met at a Russian ballet and had a daughter together, Iovanna, in 1925. In 1926, Wright drove with Olgivanna to a cottage in Minnesota, crossing state lines and leading to a night in the county jail. The charges would later be dropped, and the pair would be formally married in 1928.Frank Lloyd Wright, the Fashion MuseFrom collaborations with Kith to partnerships with Maya Brenner, America’s favorite architect remains a steadfast source of inspiration for designers of all kinds6. Wright dabbled in fashion designWright was known for his obsessive eye for detail, insisting on specific furnishings and challenging clients who threatened to compromise his vision for their homes by trying to inject their own taste into the spaces. According to Wright biographer David Hanks, this interest in the total environment led him to create select clothing as well. The architect designed dresses for his wife Catherine Tobin Wright and female clients. Though little documentation exists around the designs, two images are shown in Hanks’s book The Decorative Designs of Frank Lloyd Wright.