Cedar Rock State Park is a state park in Buchanan County near Quasqueton, Iowa, United States. The park's primary structure is the Lowell Walter House, also known as Cedar Rock, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in the Usonian style for the local businessman Lowell E. Walter and his wife Agnes. The Walter House, a one-story residence, is constructed on a bluff above a bend of the Wapsipinicon River. The park also includes a gate, fireplace, and boathouse designed by Wright, as well as other visitor amenities such as a visitor center. The house is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Lowell Walter had become a successful businessman by 1942, when he contacted Wright to design a house at the site. Wright completed the design in 1945, but due to material shortages, construction did not begin until 1948. The house was completed in 1950 and, after hosting two public open houses, functioned as the Walters' summer home for three decades. After Walter died in 1981, he bequeathed the property to the state government, which opened it to the public in 1982. The visitor center was completed in 1989. The house has undergone several renovations after the state's takeover.
The Walter House has a facade of brick, walnut, and glass. Its reinforced concrete roof overhangs the main house, along with a carport and a separate maid's residence. Inside, the house is divided into two sections, arranged in a shape resembling a tadpole. One wing contains a living–dining room, while extending off at an angle is a bedroom wing with a kitchen, two bathrooms, and three bedrooms. Wright designed the furniture and picked out the furnishings. On the riverfront is the boathouse, a two-story structure with a similar exterior design to the Walter family's main house. The boathouse has a garage on its ground floor and a residence and terrace on its second floor.
Grounds Cedar Rock State Park is located at 2611 Quasqueton Diagonal Boulevard in Buchanan County near Quasqueton, Iowa, United States. The park covers , of which were formerly part of an estate owned by the local businessman Lowell E. Walter. The primary structure in the park is the Lowell Walter House, which occupies a limestone bluff known as Cedar Rock. The bluff, whose name predates the house's construction, sits along a bend on the Wapsipinicon River. The house, along with an entrance gate, outdoor fireplace, and riverfront boathouse, was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The river is about below the house and is visible to the house's west and south. A knoll rises northwest of the house and descends to the southeast.
Wright also designed the landscape immediately around the house, putting the utilities underground and deliberately excluding elements such as stepping stones and high trees. He planted 135 evergreens on the grounds away from the house, and he refused to add a railing next to a cliff, saying that it "would look like a New York park". To avoid visual distractions, Wright put all the utilities underground. Steps descend from the house to the river and are illuminated by low mushroom-shaped lamps. There are also several ponds near the house, one of which was originally used to irrigate the gardens.
On the knoll just above the house is a fireplace. Known as the Council Fire, it contains a circular brick pavement, in addition to a semicircular brick wall with seating areas. The Council Fire was designed to be able to accommodate an electronically operated spit. There is also a circular pool, with its own semicircular brick wall, on the slope south of the house.
Other parts of the park include a trail, visitor center, restrooms, and a picnic seating area. The visitor center, about from the Walter House, hosts special events and includes exhibits about Wright and the Walter family. From the visitor center, tractors drive tourists to the Walter House. The grounds host other events such as outdoor yoga and house tours. Large parts of the park were acquired primarily to function as a buffer zone around the Wright-designed properties. When the house was being built between 1948 and 1950, Wright had wanted two existing wood-frame buildings on the knoll above the house to be torn down. These structures were kept at Walter's insistence.
History Prior to the 19th-century arrival of American pioneers, the river bend and adjacent limestone bluff were prominent natural features for the native Sauk and Fox people. The house was built for Lowell Walter and his wife Agnes, who were both Iowa natives. Lowell, originally of nearby Independence, had played on Cedar Rock Bluff on the banks of the Wapsipinicon River as a child. He owned the Iowa Road Building Company, a road-paving company, between and 1944, and he started buying large tracts in Buchanan County, Iowa, during the 1930s. The house's architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, had received significant press coverage in the 1930s after completing Fallingwater, a house for the Kaufmann family in Pennsylvania. At the time, Wright designed houses mostly for well-off families, but he was also beginning to design lower-cost Usonian houses for middle-class families. In general, his Usonian houses tended to have open plans, geometric floor grids, in-floor heating, and a carport, without a garage or basement.
Development
By the 1940s, Lowell owned 17 farms in Buchanan County. The farms spanned about in total, including around Cedar Rock Bluff. Walter first became acquainted with Wright after paving roads near the architect's hometown of Spring Green, Wisconsin. He contacted Wright in 1942 to design a house on the Wapsipinicon River site. Walter sent a letter to the architect's Taliesin studio in Spring Green, inviting him to see the land. Wright reportedly was immediately impressed with the geography, and he later wrote Walter a letter that said simply: "We will design a dwelling for you. Send further details. There will be no basement nor any attic." The onset of World War II interrupted the development of most of Wright's buildings. Wright had completed his design by 1945, when the plans were published in the Ladies' Home Journal. The design called for a low, glass-walled house on a bluff overlooking the river. Wright also designed a gate at Agnes's request and a boathouse at Lowell's request.
Construction was delayed due to wartime restrictions that caused shortages of building materials. Work began in 1948, when Wright visited Quasqueton to discuss the plans with Lowell. W. F. Kucharo was hired as the building's general contractor. Ed Franks, a resident of Independence who helped operate three of Walter's farms, helped with construction. Edna Van Patten, the daughter of Lowell's brother, recalled that construction crews began working on the house the day after completing a gym in town. Wright cleared some of the existing landscaping on the site, using tons of dynamite to level the bluff. One laborer recalled that a small section of the bluff was preserved at the top of the knoll, and that many loads of earth were transported to the site to create lawns. Workers obtained material for the concrete from the river, mixing it by hand and then bringing it up the hill. After the concrete roof was poured, work was halted during late 1948 due to winter weather, resuming in April 1949. During construction, the Walters lived in a small building on the site.
The house was nearly completed by late 1949. During his lifetime, Walter never publicly disclosed the house's cost. Builders estimated the cost at up to $135,000 (), and another estimate pegged the cost at $126,000 (). The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) calculated that the house likely cost $125,000–150,000 (equivalent to $– in ). For comparison, most American homes at the time cost no more than $10,000 (). The writers Charles and Berdeana Aguar attributed some of the high expenses to Wright's use of brick rather than locally-quarried limestone, which would have been less expensive.
Walter use
Immediately before moving in, the Walters hosted two open house events for the public in late July 1950, selling tickets to raise funds for the Veterans Memorial Park Committee of Quasqueton. Both events sold over two thousand tickets, raising hundreds of dollars for the veterans' park, which opened in 1952. From the outset, the house was commonly known as Cedar Rock, and Wright also called it "Opus 497" based on an estimate of how many designs he had previously produced. The couple used the Walter House as a summer home, although the house could theoretically be used year-round. During the winter, they lived in Des Moines.
The completed house attracted what the Cedar Rapids Gazette called "the attention of the architecture world". So many people came to see the house that Agnes wrote to her sister in California, saying that being in the house felt like she was sitting in a downtown Des Moines storefront. When he needed privacy, Lowell used the boathouse by the Wapsipinicon River, where he could call the tenants of his properties. The Walters' niece Edna began helping out with groundskeeping shortly after the house was completed; she continued to help maintain the grounds for over three decades, even after she got married and moved away in 1963. The Walters' other nieces also visited occasionally, during Christmas, and Walter often hosted barbecues for his neighbors. A former United States Navy soldier named Swede Reinhold, who had helped build the house, was its caretaker by the early 1970s. Before officially being hired in 1972, Reinhold had maintained the grounds part-time for a quarter-century.
The couple had no children and, as early as the late 1950s, were planning to give their house to the state government after their deaths. Walter sold his other land holdings in 1973 but maintained ownership of his house. Walter was 83 years old by 1979, prompting him to consider either selling the house or giving it to the state government. He ultimately agreed to bequeath the house to the state so it could be opened to the public. Walter's will stipulated that the home be donated to the DNR and opened to visitors. The will set up a trust fund for the house. The trust initially provided $1.5 million () for the house's upkeep, allowing the house to operate without any charge to visitors. In exchange, Walter's name was required to remain on the property, and the house and grounds had to retain their appearance for 75 years.
Use as park
Opening, 1980s, and 1990s Lowell Walter died in 1981. Though his will gave Agnes the right to continue living in the Walter House, she moved to Des Moines so the house could be opened to the public. She left most of the house's furnishings behind, except for some silverware, along with a casserole that was moved back to the Walter House after Agnes died in 1986. Walter's lawyer announced the details of his will in May 1982, including his gift of the Walter House to the Iowa government. The DNR accepted ownership of the house on June 22, with a ceremony attended by Governor Robert D. Ray; the Iowa Conservation Commission's director estimated that it was the largest gift the commission had ever received. At the time, the concrete floor had settled, and the roof was leaking, but the state planned to repair the house. Before the park opened, the commission documented the house's original furnishings and created an informative brochure. The state kept the original appliances such as the house's original telephone, and it displayed 1950s-era objects such as magazines in the house.