You Know Frank Lloyd Wright, but Did You Know His Wisconsin Home Was the Site of a Massacre?

On August 15, 1914, Julian Carlton set a house on fire and murdered seven people. One of which was Frank Lloyd Wright’s mistress, Martha Borthwick Cheney. Three men escaped Carlton and ran to a neighbor’s for help. One eventually died from extensive burn wounds.

Out of the nine people at Taliesin that day, two survived. To understand this tragic story, we need to start at the beginning, with the famous architect, Frank Lloyd Wright.

An American architect

Even if you are not a student of architecture, chances are you have heard of Wright. He began his career in Chicago, but his most famous works are the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and Fallingwater in Pennsylvania.

His Prairie style of residential architecture, featuring simple decor, horizontal lines (to mimic the midwest prairie), and flat roofs, were widely popular in the US. His home in Oak Park, Illinois, is an example of Prairie style, and it is open for tours to the public.

Additionally, there is a walking tour that can be taken starting from his house through the Oak Park neighborhood, which highlights some of his most significant houses in the area.

He shared his home and studio with his wife and six children. It’s remarkably modern looking for a house built in 1889. One of the most striking features of the house is the expansive playroom on the second floor.

You will learn lots of interesting facts on the tour of his Oak Park home. It’s fascinating, and I recommend it if you are ever in the area.

But don’t expect to learn from your tour guide the story of how Wright scandalously left his wife and children for a mistress in 1909. And then built a home for her in Wisconsin that he dubbed his “love cottage,” where she was tragically murdered along with her two children and four of Wright’s employees.

Martha “Mamah” Borthwick Cheney

Martha Cheney was the wife of one of Wright’s Oak Park clients. Wright met her in 1903 while designing a home for her and her husband. By 1909, the two were in love and fled to Europe to be together.

Wright left his wife behind in Oak Park with his six children. The Cheneys eventually divorced, but Catherine Wright refused to grant her husband a divorce. She believed one day he would return to her.

Wright was famous around the world, not only in the US. And the scandal of leaving his wife for a beautiful married woman followed the couple around Europe. They found little privacy there, as the press was eager to follow their every move.

With Europe as no haven for the lovers, they returned to America after a year abroad. Living in Chicago unwed, with Wright still married to another woman, was out of the question. In 1911 Wright designed a home for them in the small town of Spring Green, Wisconsin.

Local residents weren’t thrilled about having the unwed couple living among them. This was highly scandalous for the times. But none of it stopped Wright from building his hideaway there. Nor did he seem particularly shamed. He told a reporter the following.

“Two women were necessary for a man of artistic mind — one to be mother of his children and the other to be his mental companion, his inspiration and soul mate” — Frank Lloyd Wright

Taliesin was built, and the couple settled on the sprawling 800-acre estate, in relative peace, until 1914, when their peaceful life together was brought to an abrupt end.

Julian Carlton was hired as the cook

Julian Carlton arrived with his wife at Taliesin in June of 1914. He said he was from Barbados and had references from a Chicago caterer. He and his wife were hired to cook and serve food at the house.

On the afternoon of August 15, 1914, Wright was away in Chicago designing the Midway Gardens. Cheney stayed at the house with her two children, Martha, 8, and John, 12. Though they lived with their father, they were visiting their mother for the summer.

Cheney and her children sat down for lunch in the dining area to be served by Carlton. A few workers were also at the house, dining in another area. They were carpenter Billy Weston and his 13-year-old son, the gardener, David Lindblom, two draftsmen, Emil Brodelle and Herbert Fritz, and a laborer, Thomas Brunker.

The murders

Carlton sent his wife home, served Cheney and her children soup for lunch, and then proceeded to murder them with a hatchet.

After killing Cheney and her children, Carlton served soup to the unknowing workers and then stepped away. Fritz, one of the only survivors, recounted that a liquid began flowing under the door. This liquid was gasoline. Carlton had locked the group inside the room, poured gasoline under the door, and set the house on fire.

The men tried to flee the growing fire through the windows, but Carlton was waiting outside with his hatchet. Fritz got away first and managed to run half a mile to a neighbor’s house for help. Lindblom and Weston also escaped with Fritz. Though Lindblom died a few days later due to his wounds.

Carlton never tried to leave the house. He was found hiding in the furnace of the burning home. He had tried to kill himself by drinking hydrochloric acid. He didn’t die that day but starved to death seven weeks later in prison, as he was unable to eat due to the damage done to his esophagus by the poison.

Carlton never gave a motive

Carlton pled not guilty, never explained himself before his death, and a motive was never determined.

There were all kinds of unlikely theories that surfaced. Some said Carlton was angered by racial slurs from draftsmen Brodelle. Some made wild conspiracy theories that Wright had hired Carlton to kill his mistress, claiming he wanted to get rid of her.

The most widely believed theory was that Carlton was a “disgruntled employee,” having learned he was about to be fired from his Taliesin job. Witnesses told of disputes they overheard between Carlton and Cheney. And Carlton’s wife testified that he had grown increasingly paranoid and agitated leading up to the murders.

However, being fired from a summer job as a cook doesn’t seem a likely motivation to commit mass murder and set a house on fire. Most likely, he suffered from some form of mental illness. But mental illness wasn’t always considered in the early 1900s, and that motive was never deeply explored.

Taliesin was rebuilt

Taliesin was almost completely destroyed by the fire that day. A distraught Wright vowed to rebuild it. Which he did. But it burnt again, almost to the ground, from faulty wiring a few years later.

So he rebuilt the house a final time. And now it stands today as a National Historic Landmark and Frank Lloyd Wright Museum where it is open to the public for tours.

It’s a popular tourist destination in Wisconsin, visited by thousands each year. Many of these tourists will have no idea of the sad history of Taliesin, and the seven people whose lives were senselessly ended on a summer afternoon in 1914.

Sources:

1. The Massacre at Frank Lloyd Wright’s “Love Cottage”
2. Taliesin Massacre (Frank Lloyd Wright) — Crime Museum
3. Motive for Murders at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Home Still a Mystery

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Note: A previous version of this story was originally published on Medium.