The Gordon House (Frank Lloyd Wright)

March 24, 2025

A Visit to Cistus Nursery

I rarely go to nurseries anymore since I work part-time at one and another reason being that I don't have much room for additional plants. When a garden fanatic runs out of room, the brain goes into overdrive, dreaming up ingenious ways to incorporate more plants. And another thing happens - a burning desire to obtain rare and unique plants. I've been moving plants around, a tricky process that has a domino effect. A plant is unhappy - it is getting too much shade or perhaps too much sun. There is a plant that did not get as large as you thought it would or it is just a slow grower and now it is hopelessly hidden behind a taller plant. Sometimes a plant is just a dud for reasons unknown (Rhododendron 'Golden Gate' anyone?). I find the plant in question a better home, but it means that another plant will have to be moved. And the merry-go-round continues to turn... However, for those plants that are to be discarded, a space opens up for a new one! I decided to move a Mou...

Just after you enter the gates of The Oregon Garden, the first thing you see on your left is The Gordon House, one of the last Usonian houses designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It was the only house designed by Wright in the state of Oregon. It was commissioned by Conrad and Evelyn Gordon in Wilsonville, Oregon. Wright designed the house in 1957 and it was built in 1964 after his death. The Gordons lived in the house for the remainder of their lives and it was then donated to the Frank Lloyd Wright Convervancy, who meticulously dismantled the house piece by piece and relocated it to The Oregon Garden location after it was donated by the Gordon heirs.

There is also a Frank Lloyd Wright home less than one mile from our former home in Florence, Alabama. I visited it twice and wrote about it in this post from 2012.