Sleeping with Mr. Wright

Travel Strategies

Wright Sites: Lake Delton is roughly an hour from Spring Green and Wright’s Taliesin (608-588-7900). To fully experience Taliesin and the immediate area, allow a full day. (No tours November through April.) Wright’s birthplace, Richland Center, is also about an hour’s scenic drive from the cottage and is home to his A.D. German Warehouse, completed in 1921 and preluding Wright’s Los Angeles concrete block homes. (Note the Mayan-style frieze at the warehouse’s top.) The building, deteriorating and not open to the public, represents a period of Wright’s career for which little remains standing, so it is worth a look if you’re in the area. Wrightinwisconsin.org is a useful primer on the state’s Wright sites.

Activities: If you have time, there is much to do in the greater Dells area, though much of it clashes with the subtle solitude of the Peterson Cottage. Additionally, most of the Dells outdoor life goes dormant from November to April. Mirror Lake State Park (608-254-2333) remains open all year and offers a variety of outdoor activities. The HH Bennett Studio and History Center (215 Broadway, 608-253-3523) in downtown Wisconsin Dells is an excellent, if unheralded spot that tells the story of the photographic pioneer who put Wisconsin Dells on the map and documented so much of its early history. Outside Lake Delton, Tanger outlet mall (Gasser Rd., 608-253-5380) has a huge array of quality retailers offering bargain goods. A quirky option is the International Crane Foundation (Shady Lane Rd., 608-356-9462) halfway to nearby Baraboo. The crane is one of the world’s most endangered bird species and the foundation breeds and cares for them while educating the public about the aggressive, noisy fowl.

Dining: If you’re not going to eat in, there is one standout option in the Dells, the classic Del-Bar supper club (800 Wisconsin Dells Pkwy., Lake Delton, 866-888-1861 ), remodeled by a Wright disciple in the 1940s. It’s a period piece with delicious, if expensive, fare. Buffalo Phil’s Grille (150 Gasser Rd., Wisconsin Dells, 608-254-7300) is a stone-and-log behemoth near Tanger that holds 689 potential diners. It’s got decent American and Southwestern fare in a northwoods ambience. Monk’s serves tasty burgers in multiple locations in the area and will have the Badger or Packer game on the tube if you can’t stand the solitude.