Lakeland college has collection of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings

Tucked away in a quiet corner of Lakeland, the campus of Florida Southern College is well known for having the largest one-site collection of Frank Lloyd Wright-designed buildings in the world.

A walking tour of the campus is a pleasant way to spend an afternoon. The buildings still inspire awe and surprise decades after they were built.

Wright's association with the small college began by chance in the 1930s. On a trip to Europe, then college president Dr. Ludd Spivey viewed a war memorial that inspired him to return to the U.S. with the vision of constructing a campus in the orange groves. Even more inspiring to him was the autobiography of Frank Lloyd Wright.

Spivey wired the architect about his dream and he was invited to Wright's Taliesin at Spring Green, Wis. "I have no money with which to build the modern American campus, but if you'll design the buildings, I'll work night and day to raise the means," Spivey told him.

Wright was 67 when his first visited Lakeland. As he toured the orange grove area he envisioned the buildings rising "out of the ground, into the light and into the sun." His master plan called for 18 buildings using three basic materials: steel for strength; sand because it was native to Florida; and glass to bring God's outdoors into man's indoors.

The first ground breaking ceremony was on May 24, 1938, for the Annie Pfeiffer Chapel. Dedication of the building took place March 9, 1941.

Next, three seminar units were built. As word got out about Wright's creations, more and more people visited the campus to see his work. In 1942, ground was broken for the circular E.T. Roux Library, but steel and manpower shortages slowed the construction. These first buildings (chapel, seminar buildings and library) were built with student labor. Spivey arranged with the students that their tuition could be paid with manual assistance in the construction of the buildings. Dedication for the library was held in 1945.

Next up were the Emile E. Watson-Benjamin Fine Administration Buildings, the first to be built by an outside construction firm, followed by the J. Edgar Wall Waterdome in 1948. The construction of the 1.5 miles of esplanades began to connect the library and the administration building.

The Ordway Arts Building was next to be constructed and the esplanades were extended from the seminars to the Ordway Building and then back to the chapel, forming a quadrangle. Danforth Chapel went up in the shadow of Annie Pfeiffer Chapel as the foundations were laid for the Polk County Science Building.

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