John Lloyd Wright
John Lloyd Wright (December 12, 1892 – December 20, 1972) was an American architect and toy inventor. He was the second-oldest son of the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright, born in Oak Park, Illinois.
He grew apart from his father in 1909 and left home, trying several jobs before deciding to become an architect in 1912. He worked in California and joined his father’s Chicago office in 1913, helping with projects like Midway Gardens and the Imperial Hotel in Japan. A salary dispute later again separated him from his father.
While away from architecture, he designed toys. He saw a way to adapt the Imperial Hotel’s earthquake-resistant beam system into a toy and created Lincoln Logs. He started the Red Square Toy Company and brought Lincoln Logs to market, earning a patent in 1920 and having the name registered in 1923.
John Lloyd Wright married three times: Jeanette Winters (1913–1920), Hazel Lundin (1921–1942), and Frances Welsh (from 1946). He had two children: Elizabeth Wright Ingraham (born 1922) and John Lloyd Wright Jr. (born 1925).
In 1923 he moved to Long Beach, Indiana, where he designed several buildings. His work mixed his father’s Prairie School style with influences from the International Style. Notable houses include the Hoover-Timme House (1929), the Burnham House (1934), the Jackson House (1938), and the Jaworowski House (1945–46). He also designed the town’s school and town hall and received Works Progress Administration commissions, such as the Arcade Cabins Hotel at Indiana Dunes State Park. A 1939 garage fire destroyed many of his papers.
In 1946 he published My Father Who Is on Earth, a biography of Frank Lloyd Wright. He later moved to Del Mar, California, where he designed many more houses and continued his toy work, creating Wright Blocks and Timber Toys. He died on December 20, 1972, at the age of 80, leaving behind a legacy of buildings and the enduring Lincoln Logs toy.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 07:10 (CET).