DESCRIPTION

"This tiny house, with just 880 square feet of living space, brings together many of the qualities that mark Frank Lloyd Wright as one of the world’s foremost architects. The Cottage is balanced just on the edge of the steep wooded hill that plunges down to Mirror Lake. Framed by strong terrace buttresses of local Wisconsin sandstone, and with walls of the same stone, the building possesses a monumentality that is surprising to find in such a small structure The massive chimney and walls of the building, rising two stories over the bathroom and kitchen, are strong vertical elements that anchor and offset the energetic wedge of the roof. The great flying roof, seeming to hang in space without support, frames the principal views to the west and south. The flagstones used to pave the outside terrace continue inside the building as the cottage floor, manifesting Wright’s philosophy of making little distinction between the outside and inside worlds in which we live. 

Inside the cottage, the soaring roof is offset by the lower stonewalled enclosure of the east side, a cozy retreat centered on the fireplace. In the bedroom a ribbon of narrow windows just beneath the roof provides a wash of light offering shelter and privacy. 

Only one element of applied decoration marks this elegant and simple cottage: a frieze of stylized pine trees cut from plywood and set into a narrow row of windows above the main living room windows.

The Cottage was purchased by the State of Wisconsin in 1966 as an addition to the recently created Mirror Lake State Park. No appropriate use could be found for the Cottage so it was boarded up for safety and preservation reasons. It remained that way until 1989 when the Seth Peterson Cottage Conservancy was formed by local residents and Frank Lloyd Wright enthusiasts. The Conservancy signed a 15-year renewable lease with the Department of Natural Resources to rehabilitate and operate the Cottage."  Seth Peterson Cottage Conservancy