Fay Jones and Frank Lloyd Wright:
Organic Architecture Comes to Arkansas
Frank Lloyd Wright and Fay Jones: Intertwined Careers - a Timeline
Notable Dates
| June 8, 1867 | Frank Lloyd Wright born in Richland Center, WI |
|---|---|
| January 31, 1921 | Euine Fay Jones born in Pine Bluff, AR |
| 1927/28 | Jones family settles in El Dorado, AR |
| 1938 | Jones graduates from El Dorado High School |
| 1938 | Jones sees “Popular Science” film in El Dorado movie theatre on Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1936 Johnson’s Wax headquarters in Racine, WI |
| 1938 | Jones enrolls in civil engineering program at the University of Arkansas |
| 1939 | Wright designs Goetsch-Winckler residence, Okemos, MI |
| 1942 | Jones enlists in U. S. Navy |
| 1943 | Jones marries Mary Elizabeth “Gus” Knox of Hot Springs, AR, in San Francisco, CA |
| 1943 | Wright’s original design for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY |
| 1946 | Jones enrolls in University of Arkansas architecture program in the College of Engineering |
| 1947 | Wright’s Usonia II Housing Master Plan, Pleasantville, NY |
| 1948 | Wright’s house for Sol Friedman, Usonia II, Pleasantville, NY |
| March 15-18, 1949 | Jones meets Frank Lloyd Wright in Houston, TX, at the American Institute of Architects conference where Wright receives the AIA Gold Medal |
| 1949 | Wright’s house for Edward Serlin, Usonia II, Pleasantville, NY |
| 1950 | Jones receives Bachelor of Architecture degree as one of the first five graduates from the University of Arkansas architecture program |
| 1950 | With University of Arkansas professor Michael Stousland, Jones designs the Barnhart residence and the Hostetter residence, Fayetteville, AR |
| 1950-1951 | Jones receives fellowship and graduate teaching assistantship in architecture at The Rice Institute (University), Houston, TX; receives Master’s in Architecture degree in 1951 |
| 1951 | Jones designs the Hantz residence, Fayetteville, AR |
| 1951 | Wright’s house for Roland Reisley, Usonia II, Pleasantville, NY |
| 1951-1953 | Jones teaches at University of Oklahoma School of Architecture, where architect Bruce Goff is chair |
| 1951-1953?? | Jones meets Wright again at a faculty dinner arranged by Bruce Goff at University of Oklahoma |
| 1952 | Wright’s Price Tower for the H.C. Price Company, Bartlesville, OK |
| Easter 1953 | Jones is invited to Taliesin West, Scottsdale, Arizona, for Easter celebration. Attends for the next ten years. |
| June-August 1953 | Jones and family (wife, Gus, and daughters, Cami and Janis) spend three-month apprenticeship at Taliesin in Spring Green, WI |
| September 1953 | Jones accepts professorship at University of Arkansas |
| 1953 | Wright’s house for Harold Price, Jr., Bartlesville, OK |
| 1953 | Wright’s Usonian Exhibition House and Pavilion for Sixty Years of Living Architecture, New York, NY |
| 1954 | Jones establishes his architectural practice in Fayetteville, AR, as Euine Fay Jones, Architect |
| 1954 | Wright’s Usonian house for Bachman and Wilson, Millstone, NJ |
| 1954 | Wright’s Beth Sholom Synagogue, Elkins Park, PA |
| 1954 | Wright’s house for I. N. Hagan (Kentuck Knob), Chalkhill, PA |
| 1956 | Jones completes family’s personal residence, his first completed project |
| 1956 | Wright’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, final revised scheme, New York, NY |
| 1957 | Jones completes the Dr. Burdge Green residence in Stilwell, OK, his first complete independent residence |
| 1957 | Jones designs the Brothers residence, Fayetteville, AR |
| April 15, 1958 | Frank Lloyd Wright lectures at the University of Arkansas |
| 1958 | Jones designs the Dr. and Mrs. Calvin Bain residence, Prairie Grove, AR |
| April 9, 1959 | Frank Lloyd Wright dies in Phoenix, AZ |
| October 1959 | House Beautiful, the first national magazine to recognize Jones’s work, highlights the Bain residence in Prairie Grove, AR |
| 1961 | Jones becomes full Professor of Architecture, University of Arkansas |
| 1961 | Jones receives two “Homes for Better Living” awards from the American Institute of Architects for the 1960 Adrian Fletcher residence, Fayetteville, AR, and the 1960 Sam Walton residence, Bentonville, AR |
| May 1962 | Progressive Architecture, the first national architectural journal to recognize Jones’s work, features his design of his family residence |
| 1963 | Jones designs the Rex Smith residence, Fayetteville, AR |
| 1964 | Jones designs the Graham Hall residence (“Pine Knoll”), Little Rock, AR |
| 1964 | Jones receives the AIA Award of Merit for the Mrs. Harold Snow residence, Fayetteville, AR |
| 1966 | Jones receives the AIA Award of Merit for “Stoneflower,” the 1965 Shaheen-Goodfellow residence, Eden Isle, AR |
| 1966 | Jones designs the Parsons residence, Springdale, AR |
| 1966-1974 | Jones serves as chairman of the University of Arkansas Department of Architecture |
| 1968 | Jones designs the Goetsch-Winckler residence, Fayetteville, AR |
| 1974-1976 | Jones serves as first dean of the re-named University of Arkansas School of Architecture |
| 1975 | Jones designs “Raheen,” the Alice and Bob Alexander residence, outside Fayetteville, AR |
| 1977 | Jones’s practice re-named to Fay Jones and Associates |
| 1978 | Jones receives the AIA Award of Merit for the Sam Pallone residence, near Little Rock, AR |
| 1980 | Jones designs the Hotz residence, Fayetteville, AR |
| 1980 | Thorncrown Chapel, Eureka Springs, AR, opens |
| 1981 | Jones receives AIA Honor Award for Thorncrown Chapel |
| 1986 | Jones’s practice re-named to Fay Jones + Maurice Jennings Architects, with Jennings becoming a partner |
| 1987 | Jones receives a second AIA Honor Award, this time for the Reed residence, Hogeye, AR |
| 1988 | Jones retires as Professor Emeritus from the University of Arkansas |
| February 22, 1990 | Jones receives the 48th AIA Gold Medal Award “in recognition of a significant body of work of lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture,” the only one of Wright’s disciples to receive the award |
| 1990 | Jones receives a third AIA Honor Award, this time for Pinecote Pavilion at the Crosby Arboretum, Picayune, MS |
| 1991 ?? | Jones’s Thorncrown Chapel named in AIA survey as the best work of American architecture of the 1980s |
| 1991 | Jones ranked as one of the “10 most influential living architects” in a national survey conducted by the AIA |
| 1998 | Jones retires from practice |
| 1998 | Jones’s last completed design, the Fulbright Peace Fountain on the campus of the University of Arkansas, is dedicated |
| May 2000 | AIArchitect reports Thorncrown Chapel elected as one of the “Top Ten Buildings of the 20th Century” by members of the AIA |
| August 30, 2004 | Fay Jones dies at his home in Fayetteville, AR, at the age of 83 |
The main sources used in creating this timeline include Fay Jones: The Architecture of E. Fay Jones, FAIA, by Robert A. Ivy (Washington, D.C. : American Institute of Architects, c1992); The Arkansas Designs of E. Fay Jones 1956-1997, by Cheryl Nichols and Helen Barry (Little Rock, AR: Arkansas Historic Preservation Program of the Department of Arkansas Heritage, [1999]); “Biographical Time Line for Fay Jones (1921-2004),” by Callie Williams (University of Arkansas Special Collections, Spring 2006); and the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation website at http://www.franklloydwright.org/about/timeline.html .
Janet Parsch December 10, 2014
