I was so pleased and proud to accept a 2025 George Mills and Louise Noun Popular History Award from the State Historical Society of Iowa in Des Moines on June 26th! I received a wonderfully unexpected certificate of recognition for my article, “The Hope Rogers Story,” which was originally published in the May 2024 issue of The Iowa Source.
It was an absolute honor and joy to know the remarkable Hope Sankot Rogers (1924-2023) in the final years of her long, extraordinary life. The grandniece of Frank Lloyd Wright, Hope rose from being a hardscrabble Iowa farmwife to a trailblazing politician who bravely, publicly revealed her journey through a past mental health crisis. I am working now on publishing a newly expanded version of Hope’s powerfully and beautifully-written memoir Time and the Human Robot. This little award provides some mighty encouragement!
I’m so pleased to be able to reshare “The Hope Rogers Story” with you here on This American House. It can also be found at Iowa Source.
Hope Rogers at work at the Benton County Social Welfare Office in 1955
“When I waked from my ninth electric shock treatment at the Independence, Iowa Mental Health Institute in March of 1953, I discovered what I really was. I was an animal.”
Hope Rogers can be forgiven for not remembering her one meeting with Frank Lloyd Wright—she was just four years old at the time. It was 1928, and her world-famous great-uncle had materialized at a family reunion hosted by Hope’s parents, Frank and Frances Heller Sankot, on their farm near Belle Plaine, Iowa. Hope’s grandmother, Elizabeth “Lizzie” Wright Heller, was also there that day to greet her half-brother, Frank Lloyd Wright, whose stellar career—and much-publicized scandals—Lizzie had closely followed, even though the two siblings had not remained in close contact through the years. But as Hope was later told, “Frank took such a fancy to my 11 year old brother, Herb Sankot, that Frank said he ‘wanted to take Herb back to Taliesin with him and make an architect of him.’ Whereupon Lizzie told her brother he ‘was not a fit person to raise a child.’ They had a terrible argument, both probably saying unforgivable things so that Frank later left Lizzie out of his autobiography and she came near leaving Frank out of hers.”
Not only was Elizabeth Wright Heller left out of Frank Lloyd Wright’s autobiography, but she has received scant mention in the many biographies and writings about her half-brother that have appeared in the 95 years since their last encounter. Meanwhile, any mention made of the father they shared, William Cary Wright, has typically acknowledged his musical influence on his famous son, but has also dismissively characterized him as a drifter who ultimately abandoned his family. Some recent scholars—including Paul Hendrickson in his 2019 book Plagued by Fire: The Dreams and Furies of Frank Lloyd Wright—have taken aim at righting this misperception by pulling William Cary Wright more fully out of the shadows to which he has long been consigned. But Hope Rogers, who celebrated her 99th birthday this February, remains the indefatigable caretaker and champion of her great-grandfather and grandmother’s legacies, hopeful that both will more widely and lastingly find their “Wrightful” places in the extraordinary story of their famous family.
Elizabeth Wright Heller and her granddaughter, Hope Sankot (later Rogers), during the years of Lizzie’s musical mentorship, and their work together on Lizzie’s memoir. (Images courtesy of Hope and Mary C. Rogers)
William Cary Wright was a composer and teacher of music—and also at times a minister, lawyer, and doctor—from whom both Lizzie and her half-brother Frank learned piano and developed a lifelong appreciation for music. Frank Lloyd Wright would often cite the tremendous inspiration and impact of Beethoven, Bach, and Brahms on his work, once stating, “Never miss the idea that architecture and music belong together. They are practically one.” His father “is still a grossly underappreciated force in shaping Frank’s creative method,” says the music historian David Patterson, who in 2013 produced the first CD recording of a selection of William’s music. “The lessons that he taught about music were especially potent, working their way into Frank’s fundamental notions of architecture” (Patterson 2013).
On November 13, 2013, two young(ish) men, idealistic dreamers from Chicago, were handed the keys to Iowa’s only American System-Built Home. Attracted to a life of rural tranquility in an historic old house, these two men envisioned a future in which they’d transition away from the hustle and bustle of city life and settle full time in bucolic small-town Iowa. Until then, they would make the five-hour drive from the city to the country every other weekend. They would restore the house, collect its stories, and, maybe someday, even publish a book about it.
Eight years and hundreds of thousands of miles on the car odometer later, those two men are a little older and maybe a little less idealistic. They’ve driven through torrential downpours and blizzards, through darkness and hail, past deer lingering in the roadway and accidents on the interstate. Weekends have been spent stripping woodwork and painting exterior trim; rehabbing bathrooms and freshening up the kitchen; reaping and sowing homegrown vegetables in the backyard garden. They met with former owners who regaled them with the tales of this majestic old house. They started a blog and then turned it into a book.
At some point, probably around 2018, our two dreamers started to awaken to reality. Moving from Chicago to Iowa on a full-time basis was not going to be possible. Their careers, as well as longtime friends who are more like family, were going to keep them anchored to Chicago for the foreseeable future. They found ways to spend longer stretches at the Meier House, taking advantage of holiday weekends and work-from-home policies. The early days of the Coronavirus pandemic provided them the opportunity to spend weeks-long stretches at the house. They made great progress on house projects but they also had an opportunity to pause and consider what they were doing. And that, you might say, was the beginning of the end.
We’re coming up on our ninth anniversary as stewards of the Meier House. Nine years of long drives and long projects. Although we’re loathe to admit that aging is slowing us down, there’s no denying that we’re not as energetic as we used to be. That’s why we’ve made the difficult decision to sell the Meier House.
There’s a part of us that wishes we could stay; that we could continue restoring this historic old house and sharing its stories with Frank Lloyd Wright fans. But that part of us also wishes that we could somehow slice open the earth, grab Iowa by the border and drag the house two hours closer to Chicago. You know, if we can’t get to the house, let’s bring the house to us! If only that were feasible!
There’s this BBC sitcom called Ghosts that we recently watched. It’s about a young couple who inherit a rundown, old castle and, due to an unfortunate accident, the ghosts who inhabit it suddenly become visible to one of them. Living in the Meier House and collecting the stories of its previous owners has been a bit like that. No, we haven’t seen any spirits in the house. And we haven’t experienced comedic situations that always resolve themselves within 22 minutes. But we have lived amongst the ghosts of this old house. By meeting previous owners and their relatives, we made the walls of the Meier House talk. We inhabited their stories and, in turn, tried to do right by the house.
And that’s why we’re selling. We know that to do right by the house, we need to pass it along to the next stewards. We’re not here as often as we’d like and that’s keeping us from projects that would further improve the house. This is a house to be lived in, to be enjoyed. So, with lumps in our throats and tears in our eyes, we’ve placed a For Sale sign on the front lawn. We’re proud of what we have been able to accomplish in our time here – the work we’ve done, the people we’ve met, the book we published. This is a bittersweet goodbye – we truly adore this house but it will be nice to settle in one place for a while. And those ghosts? They will live with us even when we return to Chicago full-time.
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We’re excited to be partnering with the Iowa Architectural Foundation as part of their Prairie School Architecture in Iowa class. This 3-part virtual class – held February 9, 16 23 – will include 3 home tours – our American System-Built Home and two Walter Burley Griffin-designed homes in Mason City! See all the details below and consider joining us! This is a fundraiser for Iowa Architectural Foundation and a great way to see three wonderful houses without leaving the comfort of your own home.
Early Bird Tickets @ $35 are available only until 7PM on Feb 1; after that, $45 at EVENTBRITE.
February 9, 7-8:30 PM: Virtual Class led by Paula Mohr, PhD and Ryan Ellsworth, AIA
In the first half of the twentieth century, Iowa was a significant player in the development of what later came to be known as the Prairie School of architecture. This 3-part course will explore some of Iowa’s internationally renowned Prairie School buildings, such as works designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and Walter Burley Griffin. We’ll look at examples located across the state, including the Woodbury County Courthouse and Mason City’s Rock Crest-Rock Glen as well as less famous examples located in small towns throughout the state.
February 16: Tour #1 – The Meier House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, Monona, Iowa – Virtual tour of the Meier House, the only Iowa example of the American System-Built House designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Join homeowners Jason Loper and Michael Schreiber as they explain their fascinating stories of finding and restoring this beautiful home. Motivated by Wright’s lifelong interest in affordable housing, he designed these homes between 1911 – 1917. The tour will be followed by a Q&A with the homeowners, our instructors and attendees.
February 23: Tour #2 & #3 – The Schneider House and The Page House, designed by Walter Burley Griffin, Mason City, Iowa – Virtual tours of both the Schneider House and the Page House in the Rock Crest-Rock Glen development in Mason City, the first planned Prairie School development in America. Homeowners Tim & Joan Platz and Gary & Anne Schmit will take you through their amazing homes and afterwards you can ask them questions and join in the discussion with other attendees and class instructors. Find out how you can dig deeper into the Prairie School architectural legacy of Mason City.
This is a fundraiser for Iowa Architectural Foundation to help us persevere through the Covid period with our mission: “To inspire an appreciation of architecture and design through educational programming for adults and students.”
Class Instructors Paula Mohr, PhD Paula is the Certified Local Government Coordinator and Architectural Historian for the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO). She is an alumna of the University of Iowa, the Cooperstown Graduate Program in Museum Studies and the University of Virginia, where she earned her Ph.D. in architectural history. She has held curatorial and preservation positions at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the White House and the National Park Service. In 2018 The National Alliance of Preservation Commissions awarded Paula with the Renaud Award, a lifetime achievement” award that recognizes trailblazers in the advancement of preservation at the local level.
Ryan Ellsworth, AIA Ryan is a licensed architect with Estes Construction. He has practiced in New York, Chicago and Des Moines. Ryan is on the Board of Trustees of the Iowa Architectural Foundation. He is one of IAF’s most active volunteers, serving as a guide for corporate and organizational tours and Architecture on the Move summer walking tours of downtown Des Moines. Ryan was the champion of IAF’s motor coach tour to Dubuque in 2019.
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On November 11, 1918, a year and a day after the first residents of This American House moved into their new home, World War I officially ended. Two days later, schools and businesses in this small Iowa town emptied to greet ex-President William Howard Taft as his westward-bound train briefly stopped at the town depot, just two blocks from the Meier House. That same fall of 1918, the area was quarantined during a local outbreak of the international Spanish influenza epidemic.But by the following fall, after the “Home Coming” parade of its enlisted men became to date “the biggest event in the way of celebration ever held” in town,life moved on into the halcyon days the townspeople of Monona had enjoyed before the war.
Fast forward 102 years to today, November 11, 2020, and we eerily find history repeating itself – somewhat, anyway. America is hopefully about to emerge from a different sort of war, fought over the past four tumultuous years and capped off by a contentious election. A pandemic is raging, with quarantines becoming a surreal new way of life. Yet hope still prevails that by next fall, we too will be able to once again gather together in the streets, in restaurants and bars, in churches, and in our own homes. Until then, we’ll continue focusing on the greater good and making sure we’re keeping each other safe.
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