S.330A – Eddie’s Doghouse for Jim Berger

Among the oddities designed by Frank Lloyd Wright is this doghouse from 1956. Wright had designed a house for Robert & Gloria Berger in San Anselmo, California (S.330). In 1956 their son Jim wrote to Wright suggesting that his dog Eddie deserved appropriate accommodations. Jim Berger pledged money from his paper route to pay for the design.

Wright was busy with other projects and asked Jim to write again a few months later. Jim did, and Wright sent full working drawings from which the Bergers built Eddie's doghouse. Eddie preferred sleeping with his humans, though, so the doghouse did not get a lot of loving, and was destroyed.

While researching California projects for a documentary, filmmakers learned of this unique project and contacted Jim Berger. As part of the film, Jim and his brother built another doghouse from the original drawings. The doghouse toured the country in 2012/2013, accompanying showings of the film Romanza; while the film’s website once contained the touring schedule, it no longer does. I saw the house in 2014 when it had a guest residency at the Dana-Thomas house in Springfield, Illinois (S.072).

Photographed on August 1, 2014.

New 08/17/2014

Revised 03/22/2019