The Charles Bernard Boathouse Stern Steerer iceboat fleet on Lake Mendota. Frank Lloyd Wright’s elementary school is in the background. Though the photo dates from 1895, Wright would have seen the same boats on Lake Mendota back in the 1880s. Photo from the Bernard scrapbook collection.Notation by Carl Bernard.
On the anniversary of the great architect, Frank Lloyd Wright’s 150th birthday, the Madison Children’s Museum is hosting a 3 day event that will include an exhibit dedicated to the iceboat models he made as a boy. The exhibit dates are June 7 – 10. Learn more about it at their website.
Wright moved to Madison when he was 12 years old in 1879 and lived near the Bernard Boathouse, the center of ice sailing on Lake Mendota. He attended Lincoln School which was also on Lake Mendota, a few doors east of the Boathouse, where stern steerers gliding across the lake would have been a common sight. What a distraction and inspiration that must have been for the students!
Model iceboats made by William and Carl Bernard.
One of Wright’s biographies mentions that he made model iceboats as a boy. Though none of Wright’s boyhood iceboat models exist, a sophisticated model made by William Bernard (and restored by Bill Mattison) is in the collection of the Wisconsin State Historical Society. Read about that on the WSH website.
I suspect that Wright, along with many boys in the neighborhood, would have spent time at the Bernard Boathouse watching Charles and William build boats. It would have been an exciting place for a boy with an inclination to become an architect.
The roof of the Unitarian Meeting House.
We know from a recording of Carl Bernard in the Wisconsin State Historical Society archives that when he was in Madison, Wright continued to drop in on the “boys at the Boathouse”. It could have been at the Boathouse where learned of master carpenter and iceboat builder, Frank Tetzlaff, famous for his part in building the MARY B stern steerer. In the early 1950s, Wright’s complicated roof design for Madison’s Unitarian Meeting House was proving difficult to build. It was Frank Tetzlaff who “helped translate” Wright’s plans.
Frank Lloyd Wright, much like the aviator Charles Lindbergh during his brief stay here, was drawn to the sport of iceboating and the people in Madison who were obsessed with building and sailing them.
You may wonder what iceboating and WW1 Naval guns have to do with each other but there’s always a way to connect iceboating to anything. (Ask me about Abraham Lincoln and iceboating sometime -Ed.)MISS WISCONSIN won the Northwest Free For All in 1922 and 1923.
In 1918, Madison’s most famous iceboat builder, William Bernard, accepted a commission from the Steinle Turret Lathe Machine Company and built the most expensive iceboat of his career. MISS WISCONSIN cost $1,000, an amazing sum considering that Bernard’s most expensive boat to date had cost $400. Taking her maiden voyage in high winds, the Wisconsin State Journal reported that she broke “all speed laws of Lake Mendota” and picked up an ice fisherman as she swept by him. The man was not severely injured and recovered shortly after his harrowing ride. William Bernard’s son Carl, a young teenager at the time, recalled that there was “no finer ice boat ever built.” George Steinle’s company manufactured 5” guns for the U. S. Navy.
Ice yachtsmen of the midwest united in 1913 to organize the Northwest regatta to determine which club had the fastest stern-steerers. Read more about their efforts and the first Northwest which was sailed in Menominee, Michigan.
Two years later, the Northwest regatta came to Madison for the first time and was sailed on Lake Monona. The Milwaukee boat DEBUTANTE III won the A class, beating local hero Emil Fauerbach’s PRINCESS III. Madison’s most famous iceboat builder of the time, William Bernard, won the B fleet. Interesting to note that there was a C class champion back then but the C class NIYA records that I have start in 1926.
Madison historian, Frank Custer, wrote an absolutely fascinating story about this regatta filled with the kinds of details that iceboaters love to read, like the fact that the DEBUTANTE III was the first boat to use aluminum runners. Custer’s article is a must read, check it out here.
A Class champion: DEBUTANTE III, D. Van Dyke, K. Doemel, M. Mackie
B Class champion: VALIENT, W. P. Bernard, H. Nelson
Free For All champion: DEBUTANTE III, D. Van Dyke, K. Doemel, M. Mackie
Friday, January 22, 1915 Wisconsin State Journal
FREE FOR ALL TO DEBUTANTE III
Milwaukee Owned Ice Yacht Wins SQUARE PEOPLE’S Cup On Lake Monona
The free-for-all race for the Square People’s trophy for ice boats of all classes, which is always a feature of the Northwestern Ice Yachting association regatta was won this morning by DEBUTANTE III, skippered by its owner, Douglas Van Dyke of Milwaukee. The race went 15 miles and the beautiful Van Dyke craft covered the distance in 59 minutes and 5 seconds. Considering the light breeze and the snow, this is considered fair time.
Nine minutes after DEBUTANTE III crossed the tape, PRINCESS III owned by Emil Fauerbach finished. Followed in their respective order were OLD CRAFT of Menominee, PRINCESS II, and TOOT TOOT, the last two being seconds apart.
DEBUTANTE II, the sister boat of the winner, struck a stake and was disqualified. FLIT, FREAK, and VALIANT withdrew.
The final races for trophies in the B and C classes were run off late this afternoon.
