Unity Chapel

Unity Chapel
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Unity Chapel
Location	Wyoming, Iowa County, Wisconsin
Coordinates
Built	1886
Architect	Joseph Lyman Silsbee
Architectural style	Shingle Style
NRHP Reference #	74000092
Added to NRHP	July 18, 1974

The Unity Chapel is located in town of Wyoming in Iowa County, Wisconsin. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

History

Unity Chapel was design in Joseph Lyman Silsbee's Chicago architectural office in 1886. Silsbee was one of the leading practitioners of Shingle style architecture in the Midwest and designed the chapel as a simple execution of this style. Although not officially in the employee of Silsbee, eighteen-year-old Frank Lloyd Wright "looked after the interior". This makes the chapel Wright's earliest known work. The chapel was designed for Wright's uncle, Jenkin Lloyd Jones, who had commissioned Silsbee to design his All Souls Church in Chicago the previous year. After Unity Chapel was built, Wright moved to Chicago and joined the employ of Silsbee.

The building was recognized by the National Park Service with a listing on the National Register of Historic Places on July 18, 1974.

Architecture

The chapel is a small building shaped in a reversed "L"; the short leg points north and the long leg points east. The short leg operated as an entryway and the long leg is the main chapel hall. The hipped roof is steeply-pitched and features a belfry at the intersection of the gables. The belfry is square with a bell-cast hipped roof. Each of its four sides has a semi-circular arched opening. Consistent with Shingle style design architecture, a layer of wood shingles covers both the roof and the exterior walls. Unity Chapel rests on a rock-faced stone foundation. Double-hung windows in groups of three are found on the north, south, and west walls. The upper sash has twelve lights and the lower sash is one large pane.

The chapel graveyard holds the remains of several relatives of Wright. Wright himself was originally buried there, but his wife later moved the remains to Taliesin West in Arizona.