ABSTRACT
Almost immediately on return from Japan in late 1922 Wright began experimenting with what he later called “textile blocks” or “textile tiles” or less often “textile-blockslabs” of precast concrete.1 Initially the blocks and tiles were most eectively used as facing or structural members for walls and rectangular posts on four houses: rst for former client Alice Millard, and then for new clients John Storer, the Freemans,
and the Ennises. Each house was built on steep hillsides and located at the suburban perimeter of a quickly expanding Los Angeles: a city centered on undulating desert lands, high lumpy hills and seasonal arroyos; the rst major city to exploit the linear movement of trolleys, trams, and automobiles. Like Barnsdall, those four clients, those patrons were an interesting lot.
