to sleep there with the balcony door open from April through October. In that bedroom one had plenty of space to exercise on the rug that echoed the window pattern which I had also used for the bedspread. Three mirrors in the bedroom reflected the morning glories on the balcony, a spinnaker of heavenly blue in summer. The house was in harmony with nature surrounding it and would cast its spell when one could really see . Not everyone was as bewitched by the house, or perceptive, among them a young student who occupied in 1906, and not constructed in 1907 as previously reported in many accounts. Mirrors and toilets from the day are sometimes dated and were the last things to go in, some with a 1906 date. Records from William LeBaron Jenny's Riverside Hotel show the Tomeks awaiting completion of the construction of their home there in 1905, but not in 1906. Emily must have been “receiving” in the fall of 1906. She was mentioned in the spring edition of The Blue Book, a list of fashionable addresses. Missing from the landmark status nomination Tomek House ought to be nominated for National Historic Landmark status. (Homeowners are not allowed to submit a nomination for their own property.) This experience clarified for me how errors in architectural research and history can grow long legs. The young student submitting the application got some things right but overlooked my own book, Down to Earth: An Insider’s View of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Tomek House . This was a primary source where a few minor architectural myths had already been sorted
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