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Adventures in the Villa

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Bentonville, AR

2022-10-09 Bella Vista, Arkansas and 2022-10-10 Bentonville, Arkansas

Sunday was a free day! No scheduled activities. So that is what we did – nothing…

Therefore, you get to see the annual school pictures of our grandchildren…

Evelyn Joy – Age 4 1/2

George Xavier – Age almost 7

Ian Philip – Age 8

Roisin Marie – Age 9

On Monday we did a LOT! First we walked around the campground…

Then we drove a few miles to Bentonville, AR, to see Crystal Bridges, the famous art museum on the outskirts of Bentonville…

As you can see, I was much more interested in the museum buildings themselves (designed by Moshe Safdie)….

Many of the buildings are actual suspension bridges, perched over a flowing stream, which has been dammed to create reflecting pools…

This was a mirrored room with glowing orbs, reflected to infinity…

Atticus Fitch and Scout, behind the screen door…

Some neon art…

A Calder mobile…

Finally: The Frank Lloyd Bachman-Wilson house. The house was moved from New Jersey, where it was threatened with constant flooding… It was fully restored and installed at Crystal Bridges…

The orientation structure before we entered the house was designed by architecture students at University of Arkansas, the head of which was E. Fay Jones…

Retaining walls on the site are made of native stone…

The approach to the house showing the carport on the left. Can you find the front entry door?

Is this the door?

Yes, this is the entry door, as approached from the carport…

The rear of the house, showing the mahogany siding and the cantilevered balcony…

The clerestory windows with the cut-out inserts, a favorite of Wright…

We toured the interior of the house. (No photography allowed…) We had seen the house in 2019, but I was much more impressed this time around…

We walked back to the car and came upon a display of Chihuly glass…

Now it is time to drive to Bentonville, AR… It is a great little town, full of nicely maintained buildings and vibrant businesses. Again, we had been here before in 2019.

This is the location of the second store owned and operated by Sam Walton…

We met up with the rest of the Airstreamers at the Walmart Museum…

It was interesting to see Sam Walton’s Office…

Lots of information about the history of Walmart. Lots of propaganda, too… An interesting thing is happening these days. As you know, the original Walmarts were located on cheap land equidistant between two small towns. Since Walmart could charge much lower prices, soon the small stores in these towns went out out of business… This model was repeated all over the South and Midwest. However, 50-60 years later these small towns are dying and people are moving away. Now Walmart is opening Walmart Neighborhood Markets, small grocery stores, in these very towns, just to keep them viable so that the big Walmart in the country can stay profitable…

After the museum we visited Pressroom. We had also been here in 2019. We enjoyed a cocktail before we headed to dinner…

We found what might be the only French restaurant in Arkansas!

We enjoyed a lovely dinner!

We returned to the Villa, and an enjoyable time was had by all…

2019-06-02 – Traveling West – Eureka Springs and Bentonville, AR

We attended Sunday Services at Thorncrown Chapel.  Worshiping in such a beautiful place is a very special experience…

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An interesting point was that the preacher was the son of the founder and of the chapel… And there was some good old hymn singing going on…

A mystery occurred behind the blue pilaster on the right.  The minister suddenly appeared from behind the pilaster, then he went back again during some of the singing.  Is he just sitting on a chair back there, and had he been there since before we arrived?  Or is there a hidden back door there that he can slip in  and out of?  Or is there a stair to a basement with an exterior entrance?  Any ideas?

After the service we drove to Bentonville; along the way we found, quite by accident, Hoss’s RV Repair.  The place was littered with old Airstreams (23), in various stages of repair and restoration…

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We traveled on…

Bentonville is home of Sam Walton and his family.  And his family’s store:

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The town Square is very nice…

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We had brunch at a very nice modern diner…

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We were very impressed with the center of this town of 70,000 people.  (In 1960 when the first WalMart was built the town had about 3,000 people…)

We wondered, as we looked around at these downtown buildings, how much of this was built, rebuilt, and/or owned by WalMart?  Did the first WalMart, built outside of town on the highway, kill the town?  Did WalMart buy up the deserted buildings and create this Disneyesque town square?  I don’t know…

(By the way, the original Walton’s 5 and dime is just a facade for the WalMart Museum.  There is a WalMart Neighborhood Market just a block away…)

In any case, the reason we were here was to see Crystal Bridges, the Museum of American Art built by the Walton Family Foundation… It is about 3/4 mile from the heart of town…

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The museum was designed by Moshe Safdie, world famous architect…

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The museum sits atop a small creek that has been dammed to form several ponds at several levels.  The weirs (dams) are under the buildings, so the surfaces of the ponds are kept mirror-still…

The vaulted roofs are supported by suspension cables.  Remarkable!

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But the REAL reason we are here is to see a Frank Lloyd Wright Usonian house.  The Bachman-Wilson House was originally built in New Jersey in the mid 1950s.  Over the years it was lived in by a variety of families.  In 1980 it was restored; unfortunately, the adjacent river took up a bad habit of overflowing its banks on a regular basis.  By 2004 the owners appealed to the Walton family and convinced them that there is no greater American Art than a Frank Lloyd Wright Usonian house.  The house was disassembled and moved here, and it was reassembled on a site adjacent to the museum…

It is a classic Usonian, which typically turns a blank face to the street for privacy.  FLlW also typically hides the front door…

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There’s the door…

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(Sorry, no interior photos…)

The house bears remarkable similarities to the Spring house in Tallahassee and the Rosenbaum house in Florence, AL.  The board and batten siding, the views out to the forest, the horizontal lines, the cantilevered carports, and the stenciled cut-outs applied to the glass…

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The house has been beautifully restored and preserved… It is, indeed, a piece of American Art…!

But we move on!

In the little town of Bella Vista, in the far northwest corner on Arkansas, within a mile or two of the Missouri and Oklahoma borders, is another Fay Jones chapel…

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In contrast to Thorncrown Chapel, this chapel is built of steel.  Again, the details are beautiful…

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Built to honor Mildred Borum Cooper, wife of John A. Cooper, Sr., founder of Cooper Communities, Inc, the Chapel is a fitting memorial.  Besides being a devoted wife, mother, and member of the community, Mrs. Cooper had a deep spirituality and a love for nature.  Her family commissioned the Chapel in her honor to celebrate her life and her dedication to God and his creations.

We returned to Eureka Springs and enjoyed a dinner in a fine French bistro: Le Stick Nouveau:

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We enjoyed five courses of appetizers and hors d’oeuvres… and a bottle of fine Pinot Noir from Oregon…

As is our custom, we returned to the Villa for Happy Hours and a light supper; an enjoyable time was had by all…

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