In the early 1950s, Gerald Tonkens commissioned the office of Frank Lloyd Wright to design and build his family’s residence, The Tonkens House, in Cincinnati, Ohio. Mr. Tonkens’ daughter, Nancy, had a cat named Felinus and she requested an appropriate residence for the cat as well, so the office designed this modern cat house in Wright’s favorite color, Cherokee Red.
This important piece of feline design — along with the original rendering shown above — has passed through the hands of various auction houses and antique dealers until recently being acquired by The Feline History Museum in Alliance, Ohio. The museum is a project of the CFA Foundation and houses a large collection of historical feline artifacts.
The new acquisition was unveiled at a reception and tested by some lovely Maine Coon cats. I can’t think of a more perfect place for this cat house to live! If you’re ever in Ohio, please make sure to pay the museum a visit. More information about the CFA Foundation and the Feline History Museum at FelineHistoricalFoundation.org.
As a great admirer of Wright, I’m delighted by this!
As President of feline museum I can say we are proud to house and display this important piece. The museum is free to all our visitors and we exist solely on tax deductible donations. More information on our website felinehistoricalmuseum.org
I love this!
I love this! I love Wright’s aesthetic. I have always been mesmerized by his designs. This is probably the most perfect cat house I have ever seen. Places for perching and to get away from any wayward dogs. I nice indoor spot to snooze and lots of dangly toys to play with.
Good design, for human or cat, is never outdated. The design for the cat residence is just as fresh and stylish as when it was created.
Good design on display at a feline history museum – bonus points! I will have to schedule a visit to the museum, I just have to figure out how to smuggle my cats in to the museum.
Inspiring!
What is the pole on the top for?
It looks like there was a flag on top in the original drawing.
Wow! That is great ! The house I grew up in
from age. 2-9 was designed by a student
of Frank Lloyd Wright. It was a very unusual
house for the time period , no cat house but
am sure they would have loved it!! But my
cat did have a indoor fish pond with a water
fall.
The flagpole is the only part of the cat house that is not original. The pole was replaced at some point.
Really wish someone could purchase the right to produce reproductions. It’s gorgeous!
This is very unique yet creatively done. It’s like a state of the art U.F.O house! Congrats to all Felis Catus. Excellent job Sir Wright. Thanks for sharing this.
WOW! Has everyone been hoodwinked about the source of this design done when I was an Apprentice to Frank Lloyd Wright in the field supervising the construction of the Boswell house in Cincinnati, OH. Earlier Mr. Wright had sent his grandson, Eric Wright, and me to waterproof the exterior of the Tonkens residence so I was familiar with and became even more friendly with Rosalie and Gerald, even occasionally “house sitting” for them. One day Gerry asked me to design a cat house for his daughter. My dyslexia and difficulty with spelling manifests in the incorrect spelling of residence. The FLLW office was NEVER consulted about this drawing and it did NOT come from Frank Lloyd Wright. It came solely from me. The only relationship to FLLWright was/is that I was an apprentice at the time, and his aesthetic had become a part of my creative psyche. I am not trying to steal any thunder from Mr. Wright. I am merely trying to correct history. This design did not come from him and will not be found in his archives. The only drawing which exists (unless someone has made copies) is the one shown, which I did. Years after I did the drawing I was walking around the Tonkens’ house and saw the decrepit, delaminated cat house on a trash heap near the lot line. Imagine my surprise when the former apprentice, Mark Heyman called to tell me the cat house was for sale at Christies Auction House. The description said I had called Mr. Wright to ask him what to do. Over this i had a good laugh and thought, “How absurd.” That NEVER happened. That story was a fabrication of the seller who had apparently made a new version of the original or else spent an inordinate amount of time restoring the wreckage of the original – anything to attach Mr. Wright’s name to something to elicit an inflated price at auction. I should have refuted the assertion at that time, but thought the story so ridiculous it could never be assume to be true. Now it has grown legs and is once again being presented as a FLLW original. The purchaser from Christies was Tom Monahan of Dominoes Pizza who was amassing an enormous collection of Wright related objects. Later the house was resold for a fraction of what Mr. Monahan had paid. When it appeared for sale on eBay I wrote to eBay to refute their statement that it was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Apparently that refutation was never transmitted to either the seller or the buyer. No one wants to believe they have been duped with misinformation. It is now time to put to rest the Frank Lloyd Wright association with this design. It is incompletely, tee-totally mine.
Thank you for the clarification Thomas!!
This is to Thomas Herman Olson. I am an architect in Cincinnati working on the FLLW Tonken house and, given your association with it, would like to ask you some questions about discoveries we have made on the site.
Please contact me.