It's Official

As of today and for reasons that are not altogether clear to me, one of Springfield's (hell the entire state's) most culturally and architecturally significant landmarks has been closed to the public.

You can read other bloggers' thoughts on the subject here, here, and I'm sure elsewhere, but I can't locate any others right now.

Aubrey and I spent a wonderful post-Thanksgiving Friday afternoon at the Dana-Thomas house, taking the tour one last time before the doors were shut. It was a busy day, and an emotional day for many there. A heaviness hung in the air as people came and went.

Signs were posted leading up to the tour office that read: "There will be no Christmastime here this year," and I couldn't help thinking about the meanings beyond literal that this sign held.

There are many reasons why the closing of the Dana-Thomas House is an atrocity. The type of atrocity much akin to book burning or stealing great works of art in times of war.

But I have a story to share on just why the Dana-Thomas closing bothers me so much personally.

A few years ago, Aubrey and I went to the Dana-Thomas House for a tour. In our tour group was a small family, a mother, a father, and a son. The son, a thin, pale boy of maybe 12 or 13, was fascinated with the house. He held a small notebook as we wandered from room to room, staring at stained glass and wonderfully imagined pieces of built-in furniture.

At one point, the tour guide asked a question about some aspect of the house or other. I don't remember right now, but I think it had something to do with the sculpture that greets visitors upon entering the home. At any rate, the tour guide asked a question, and we all stood around looking at our shoes or pretending we thought it was a rhetorical question or some of us even pretending that we didn't hear the question at all, when the little boy piped up and answered it flawlessly.

"Why yes!" the tour guide said, delighted to get an answer at all, but doubly delighted that the answer came from one so young.

She went on to ask the little boy how he knew the answer. It turns out that the little boy is interested in architecture. And he's a big fan of Frank Lloyd Wright. He and his parents take tours regularly to the Frank Lloyd Wright buildings around the country. Learning vacations.

I was blown away. I loved the idea of taking learning vacations. It's an idea that Aubrey and I have discussed many times when discussing the someday possibility of having children. The idea of whisking the family away to the Grand Canyon or to Biltmore or to Colonial Williamsburg and enjoying the history and culture and artistic importance of a place or a thing.

In a day and age when most children are obsessed with shallow actors and actresses, commercialized and overhyped musicians, or overpaid professional athletes, I found it utterly amazing that this young man held Frank Lloyd Wright up as a role model. That he looked beyond all the mainstream force-feeding and found inspiration in architecture and art.

It saddens me to think of all the people who might really, truly want to travel to Springfield to see this architectural and socio-historical gem and who won't be able to because of the pathetic political games of Illinois politicians.

While there may not be many children like the boy from our tour, it's a shame that we would have to turn away even one.