Frank Lloyd Wright - Gordon House - Silverton, OR

Frank Lloyd Wright designed well over 1,000 homes and buildings throughout his illustrious career, but only one of those structures was built in the State of Oregon: The Gordon House. Commissioned by Conrad and Evelyn Gordon, the 88-year-old Wright designed the home in his Usonian style in 1957 for the couple’s sprawling farmland acreage that overlooked the Willamette River in Wilsonville - about 30 minutes south of Portland. It wouldn’t be until several years later that the home would actually be built (1964), but sadly Wright passed away before the project was completed. The Gordon House proved to be Wright’s final Usonian design.

In 2001 the owners of the house were going to tear it down and demolish the home.  A group got together and dismantled the home and moved it to Silverton, OR and assembled it at it's present site.

It is a small home and from what we saw didn't have much storage space or even a garage.  It does have a beautiful setting with large oak trees and a lawn.  The lawn needed some much needed TLC and that would really set the home off.  They give tours of the home for a cost of $15/person, however we arrived too late to take the tour.

Memory garden.

We walked around the property and managed to wear ourselves out due to the heat and humidity.  Since the Belmont Stakes horse race was coming up, we decided to stop by a sports bar to see if American Pharoah could complete the Triple Crown.  We've seen the other two parts of the series and were eager to see if he could do it.

The sports bar we selected turned out to be a real loser since the bathrooms were out of order and the a/c wasn't working.  It was hot in there but they did have big screen TV's set to the race.  We ordered our meals and a beer and suffered through the heat but then I noticed the Elks Lodge across the street.  I decided to check it out before our food came to see if they were open and if they had the race on.  Yep, open but the bar didn't open for a while.  I talked to the bartender and she agreed to let us watch the race there.  Did I tell you that it was very cool in there due to the a/c?   It was!

I went back to the sports bar and we managed to finish our meal before the race and then scooted over to the Elks Lodge where we had the entire place to ourselves.  On came the TV and we watched American Pharoah win the race easily.  The last time we saw a triple crown winner was Affirmed in 1978.   Penny Chenery, the 93 year old owner of 1973 Triple Crown winner Secretariat, was at the race and looked great.   

Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports

 All time list of Triple Crown Winners.

1919 Sir Barton
1930 Gallant Fox
1935 Omaha
1937 War Admiral
1941 Whirlaway
1943 Count Fleet
1946 Assault
1948 Citation
1973 Secretariat
1977 Seattle Slew
1978 Affirmed
2015 American Pharoah

After the race we checked out the area around Silverton and were surprised to see all the farms growing blueberries, strawberries, beans and assorted vegetables.  The Williamette Valley is a big farming area and is known as "the grass seed capital of the world.  

We finished off the day by going to the Kezier Elks Lodge and listening to a live band playing there.  They did a good job and played a variety of songs but by that time we were worn out and finally came back to the motor home around 11pm.  

That was our day, how was yours?