The Unity Chapel is located in the town of

Wyoming Wyoming ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States, Western United States. It borders Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho t ...

Iowa County, Wisconsin Iowa County is a county in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census, the population was 23,709. Its county seat and largest city is Dodgeville. When created, it was part of the Michigan Territory. Iowa County is part of the Madiso ...

, United States. It was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1974.

History

Unity Chapel was designed in Joseph Lyman Silsbee's Chicago architectural office in 1886. Silsbee was one of the leading practitioners of

Shingle style architecture The shingle style is an American architectural style made popular by the rise of the New England school of architecture, which eschewed the highly ornamented patterns of the Eastlake style in Queen Anne style architecture in the United States, Que ...

in the Midwest and designed the chapel as a simple execution of this style. Although not officially in the employ of Silsbee, eighteen-year-old

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright Sr. (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed List of Frank Lloyd Wright works, more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key ...

"looked after the interior." This makes the chapel Wright's earliest known work. The chapel was designed for Wright's uncle, Jenkin Lloyd Jones, to serve as a private chapel for his surrounding Lloyd Jones relatives; Jones had commissioned Silsbee to design his All Souls Church in Chicago the previous year. The chapel grounds include a cemetery for the family, including the grave of famous Hollywood actress Anne Baxter. After Unity Chapel was built, Wright moved to Chicago and joined the employ of Silsbee. The building was recognized by the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...

with a listing on the

on July 18, 1974.

Architecture

The chapel is a small building shaped in a reversed "L"; the short leg points north and the long leg points east. The short leg operated as an entryway and the long leg is the main chapel hall. The hipped roof is steeply-pitched and features a belfry at the intersection of the gables. The belfry is square with a bell-cast hipped roof. Each of its four sides has a semi-circular arched opening. Consistent with Shingle style design architecture, a layer of wood shingles covers both the roof and the exterior walls. Unity Chapel rests on a rock-faced stone foundation. Double-hung windows in groups of three are found on the north, south, and west walls. The upper sash has twelve lights and the lower sash is one large pane. The chapel graveyard holds the remains of Wright's side of the family, the Lloyd Joneses. Wright himself was originally buried there, but his remains were moved to the grounds of his winter home,

Taliesin West Taliesin West ( ) is a studio and home developed by the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright in Scottsdale, Arizona, United States. Named after Wright's Taliesin studio in Spring Green, Wisconsin, Taliesin West was Wright's winter home and st ...

, in

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

on the wishes of his

widow A widow (female) or widower (male) is a person whose spouse has Death, died and has usually not remarried. The male form, "widower", is first attested in the 14th century, by the 19th century supplanting "widow" with reference to men. The adjecti ...

following her death in 1985.

References

* Storrer, William Allin. ''The Frank Lloyd Wright Companion''. University Of Chicago Press, 2006, (S.000)

External links

Website about the Unity Chapel and the Lloyd Jones family (which included Frank Lloyd Wright)
{{Frank Lloyd Wright Properties of religious function on the National Register of Historic Places in Wisconsin Chapels in the United States Buildings and structures in Iowa County, Wisconsin Shingle Style church buildings Churches completed in 1886 Unitarian Universalist churches in Wisconsin Welsh-American history National Register of Historic Places in Iowa County, Wisconsin 1886 establishments in Wisconsin Shingle Style architecture in Wisconsin

History

Architecture

See also

References

External links