By Brenna Wiegand
Twelve years ago a serendipitous string of events resulted in a dedicated band of people rescuing Oregon’s only Frank Lloyd Wright structure from demolition. The spacious oak savannah tucked below The Oregon Garden couldn’t have been a better setting, and as the classic house touched down, the spirit of the famed architect began wafting its way through the community.
Stacie Phillip’s seventh grade science class at Butte Creek School recently experienced Gordon House Conservancy’s Wright In School program as part of a larger project in engineering and design.
“It’s a science inquiry but it’s a different terminology; a different method because there’s a big push for producing more engineers in our country,” Phillips said.
Just what Wright’s mother was up to in 1876 when she met renowned educator Dr. Friedrich Froebel at the Centennial International Exhibition. Among his teaching aids or “Froebel Gifts” was a beautiful set of maple wood blocks of varying dimensions. She thought the blocks were an ideal way to teach 10-year-old Frank about architectural design. More than 80 years later, the influential architect told reporters “They are in my hands to this day.”
And a set is also at the Gordon House, thanks to grants from Marion County Cultural Trust and Safeway Foundation.
“We set up lesson plans and a loan program open to all teachers,” said Molly Murphy, Gordon House director. “We offer a stipend for transportation, one of the big stumbling blocks in getting kids out of the school.”
“They told us how the house was built on a fault line,” Phillips said. “They talked to us about architecture in general, loaned us some related books and we checked out the blocks.”
Matching the Froebel Gifts with a unit on earthquakes got things shaking back in the classroom. Parent volunteer Scott Blake built the class a large three-speed earthquake sheet table as Silverton dentist Michael Kim blessed the project with a grant.
The kids used the blocks in designing their houses – earthquake resistant houses.
“I actually incorporated some parts of the Gordon House into my house,” Andrea Fernando said. “We saw that the house was intended to move so I kind of wanted my house to move. That’s why I have this bumpy surface on the bottom.”
Nobody’s house came apart so they measured how much the structures traveled during the “quakes.” Fernando’s did well: It moved, but not too much.
“It’s a great that Stacie took the Gordon House up on their offer to use resources in her science class,” said Butte Creek School Principal Kevin Palmer. “She not only used the materials they offer for checkout, but also took her class to the Gordon House to further what they learned in class.”
“The kids, I think, just really enjoyed it,” Murphy said. “All of this is coming to fruition; it is working and I just feel really positive about how Stacie saw what we had and turned it into something that really worked for her.”
