H eadlines
Frank Lloyd Wright-Designed Buildings Abound
on Campus of Florida Southern College
T RAV EL
JEFF AND VIRGINIA ORENSTEIN |
JE FEATURE
Note: We recommend that
travelers follow CDC guide-
lines and check with each mode
of transportation and specific
venue of interest for current
information before traveling.

Before You Go:
• flsouthern.edu/frank-lloyd-
wright/home.aspx • visitcentralflorida.

org/featured/ frank-lloyd-wright-archi-
tecture-at-florida-south- ern-college/
• visitcentralflorida.org/
cities-towns/lakeland/ • franklloydwright.org/
shop. Parking is available
across the street.

Getting There:
DECEMBER 23, 2021
This Destination at
a Glance:
The Frank Lloyd Wright Sharp
Family Tourism and Education
Center on the campus of
Florida Southern College can
be reached by highway, air or
train. A car is recommended to
reach the campus.

Over 50 Advantage: Beautiful
campus, leisurely walking,
impressive architecture.

Mobility Level: Low and
accessible except for a couple
of buildings that have stairs
leading to them.

When To Go: Year-round.

As for most of Florida, May
through September are hot and
sticky but a bit less crowded.

Winters are glorious, especially
November through March.

January can have some cool
days. Where to Stay: Lakeland
has many good hotel choices.

Special Travel Interests:
Wright architecture. l
• By car, the campus is off the
U.S. 98 exit of Interstate 4.

• By air, Tampa International
Airport (TPA) is 37 miles
distant, Lakeland Linder
International (LAL) is 6
miles away and Orlando
International (MCO) is 57
miles away.

• By train, Amtrak serves
Lakeland. The station is a
mile away.

• The nearest cruise port is in
Tampa, 33 miles to the west.

Port Canaveral is 106 miles
to the east.

The largest concentration of
Frank Lloyd Wright buildings
in the world is located on the
picturesque campus of Florida
Southern College in Lakeland,
Florida. From 1930 through 1958, Must-Sees and Dos for
12 structures were built with a Short Trip:
Wright’s guidance on the campus. • Reserve tickets at the Sharp
Wright was contacted by the
Family Tourism Center
college president, Ludd Spivey,
(863-680-4597), and tour
and after a Wright campus
the Wright buildings on the
visit in 1938, they agreed that
campus with a knowledge-
Wright would design the new
able guide.

campus and Spivey would raise • Take a drive around scenic
the funds to build it. A dozen
Lake Hollingsworth, adjacent
buildings were erected out of
to the campus.

the 18 Wright designed and a
13th, the Usonian House, was If You Have Several
built in the 21st century, using Days:
Wright’s design.

• Orlando and its theme
The Wright buildings on
parks are a major nearby
campus are available for public
attraction. tours. If you are in central • Explore Tampa’s museums
Florida, it is well worth your
and attractions, 35 miles
time to drive to Lakeland to
distant. tour this pretty little campus. • The Gulf beaches in
To accommodate visitors,
Clearwater Beach are 68
the college opened the Sharp
miles away.

Family Tourism and Education
Center in 2013. It is located Ginny O’s Tips for
next to the Usonian House, Dressing the Simply
which serves as a tour center Smart Travel Way:
and houses guides and a gift This is not a resort. Resort
10 casual dress for the tour and
dining and touring afterward
are fine.

Jeffrey and Virginia Orenstein
are travel writers from Sarasota,
Florida. This life-sized statue of famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright stands in front of the Sharp Family Tourism and
Educational Center next to the Usonian House on what Wright called “The Child to the Sun” campus project he
designed. Photos by Jeff Orenstein
The E.T. Roux Library building (no longer serving as the campus library but converted into other campus
uses) is a typical Wright structure with clerestory windows and light-channeling features.

JEWISH EXPONENT
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



H eadlines
The gorgeous reading room of the E.T. Roux Library building is now used for classroom
lectures. The desks and some furnishings are original.

The impressive skylight as seen from the
interior of the Annie Pfeiffer Chapel is a
prominent feature of this large building.

The Usonian House was designed to
be a typical faculty home for the campus.

One was built in 2013 using Wright’s plans.

The built-in furniture and thousands of
translucent colored glass plugs in the walls
are typical Wright signatures.

Esplanades, or covered walkways, link the entire complex of Wright buildings on the
campus. Totaling more than a mile in length, their supports and trimmings were specified
by Wright to mimic the orange grove that originally stood here.

The view from inside one of the Wright-designed esplanades that link campus buildings
is quite impressive and very different from the outside view. They are well-suited to the
climate and blend seamlessly with the rest of the architecture.

Jewish Lakeland
ALTHOUGH FLORIDA SOUTHERN College is
nominally a Methodist-affiliated institution, it has
students of many creeds, including some Jews. Since
it is located in Lakeland, Jews associated with or
visiting the campus can find Jewish life in Lakeland
and Tampa.

While a few Jews may have lived in and around
Polk County before 1900, the current community
traces its roots to Cy Wolfson’s arrival in 1909. In
the following decades, Lakeland developed a small
but active Jewish community that continues to
function today
By the mid-1920s, local Jews began to hold prayer
services, first in private homes and then in rented
facilities, and they began to organize religious
school classes not long after. While lay members led
most religious services, they received monthly visits
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM from Rabbi L. Elliot Grafman of Tampa, who also
assisted with religious education. As Jews continued
to migrate to the area, Lakeland emerged as the
regional center of Jewish life. Between 1932 and
1934, a small group of 16 families purchased a small
building and formally organized as the Lakeland
Jewish Alliance.

The Jewish community of Lakeland and Polk
County grew and become more organized in the
late 1930s and early 1940s. The alliance changed
its name to Temple Emanuel and began the search
for a full-time rabbi, hiring Rabbi Jack Friedman in
1943. World War II brought several Jewish military
service members to the area.

The Jewish community of Lakeland and Polk
County was, for the most part, well accepted in
the mid-20th century, but local Jews did face social
JEWISH EXPONENT
barriers in the 1950s and 1960s.

Temple Emanuel’s run as the sole synagogue in
Polk County ended in 1982 when a handful of young
Jewish families organized Temple Beth Shalom, a
Reform congregation based in Winter Haven.

Polk County’s Jewish population did not sustain
its mid-20th-century growth into the 1970s.

Whereas Temple Emanuel had approximately
250 member families in 1956, a 1979 newspaper
article referred to a membership of “about 200”
households. Despite changes, Polk County’s Jewish population
remained relatively stable, with an estimated 1,000
Jews in the area in the mid-1990s. As of 2019, both
Temple Emanuel and Beth Shalom hold regular
services, and there is also a Chabad Center. l
— Jeffrey and Virginia Orenstein
DECEMBER 23, 2021
11