We left Little Rock about 8:00 am. Arkansas is green…
We were driving through the Ozarks National Forest…
We stopped for a respite along the way… driving through windy, steep mountain roads is taxing, and relief was required…
We arrived in Eureka Springs, and set up at the Green Tree Lodge and RV Park, a nice but basic RV park…
Then we drove one mile down the road to see the work of E. Fay Jones, an early apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin, and a prolific architect and educator during his long career. This is the Thorncrown Chapel:
The interior is as spectacular as the exterior…
The light fixtures along the “walls” are exquisite; the light is in the shape of the cross…
As a true student of Frank Lloyd Wright, Fay’s chair designs are great, too!
The rear is as great as the front…
The attention to detail is astounding…
The front door, repeating the diamond shape…
The Thorncrown Chapel has won every architectural award imaginable… Just recently it was honored by leading the list of “40 under 40”, great architecture that has become iconic in less (fewer?) than 40 years…
The chapel is the dream of a man named Jim Reed, an Arkansas native, who bought this land in 1971 to build his retirement home. Over the years he continually found strangers walking through the property enjoying the beautiful Ozarks hills. Rather than fence them out, he decided to invite them in. He and his wife decided to build a glass chapel as a place for visitors to relax in an inspiring way. I think they have met their goal…
After such a beautiful place we drove to Eureka Springs and found the opposite:
Eureka Springs was hot, noisy, crowded, and full of bikers and tourists. There was some festival going on, although we never quite determined what it was. The town is very historical, much like Bisbee, AZ, but the tourist factor rivaled Fredericksburg, TX, (and Graceland…)
Eureka Springs was a late 19th century boom town which grew rapidly based on the water from their many springs. All the quacks and snake oil salesmen came to town to sell magic water to cure everyone’s ills… The town suffered a bit when the Great Fire of 1888 burned it to the ground, but it was quickly rebuilt and grew to a population of over 4,000. Today it has a population of about 2,000, but the historic downtown itself is nothing but biker bars and trinket shops… We did enjoy a good walk and we hope to return tomorrow for dinner at a highly rated French bistro…
As is our custom, we returned to the Villa for Happy Hours and a light supper; an enjoyable time was had by all…
Adventures in the Villa 