The Gobbler again shines in spotlight

By Steve Sharp of the Daily Times staff
Friday, June 6, 2008 10:23 PM CDT

JOHNSON CREEK - Frank Lloyd Wright enthusiasts - and some simply out for an evening of reminiscing - passed again through the doors of the famed Gobbler restaurant in Johnson Creek Friday for one of several events that comprise this weekend's “Wright and Like - On the Road Again” celebration.

The events are being held through Sunday in locations including Beaver Dam, Columbus, Jefferson, Dousman and Oconomowoc, and are meant as salutes to the mid-century architecture of Wright, Russell Barr Williamson and John Randal McDonald. The galas are being put on by the Madison-based Wright In Wisconsin organization.

Wright is widely regarded as the 20th century's greatest architect. According to Wright In Wisconsin's Web site, “indeed, the American Institute of Architects in a recent national survey, recognized Frank Lloyd Wright to be ‘the greatest American architect of all time.'”

Wright is a Wisconsin native and developed a fondness for locations in Jefferson County, one of them being the county seat itself.

Jefferson attorney Ray Krek offered some opening remarks Friday evening following dinner and socializing among approximately 100 enthusiasts of architecture gathered in the sunlit Gobbler bar and dining areas.

ADVERTISEMENT

Krek is the current owner of the Gobbler and said he wants to see the building saved, despite the loss about four years ago of its accompanying hotel - a building he said was not built with the same integrity as the Gobbler.

Krek said the famed landmark restaurant would have a hard go of it in today's market. He said to make the Gobbler a success, an ambitious restaurateur would have to have substantial financial resources to “make it great.”

“This is a huge place and how many places are of this (size) in Johnson Creek, Wisconsin?” Krek said.

Krek recalled some visits Wright made to Jefferson. Krek noted Wright was an aficionado of Thomas Jefferson and liked to be in a city with Jefferson's name and in Jefferson County.

Wright designed a home that sits just to the east of the Jefferson County Courthouse and Krek said Wright, himself, offered his services to Jefferson County for the design of what is currently its courthouse. That stunning offer, however, was rejected by the Jefferson County Board of Supervisors.

“And that's too bad,” Krek said, adding how unattractive he thinks the present courthouse is, “because we would have had one of the nicest courthouses in the country.”

Veteran Fort Atkinson architect Helmut Ajango was a guest of honor Friday evening. Ajango is the man who designed the building that became the landmark Gobbler. Ajango promised his rapt audience he would tell them “... the rest of the story” about the history of the unique structure, and he did.

Ajango said the man who funded the Gobbler's planning and construction was a farmer from Jefferson County named Clarence Hartwig. Ajango said Hartwig was impressed by what was, in the 1960s, the recently constructed Fireside in Fort Atkinson.

“Mr. Hartwig (came to me) and said, ‘Beat the Fireside,'” Ajango said. “But no details were given to us on how to do this, no sizes. He just said, ‘Beat the Fireside.' Those were his exact words. So we took it on.”

Ajango said Interstate 94 was just being built at the time he was planning the Gobbler and he wanted the building to stand out, both architecturally and in terms of its placement in a prominent location.

Ajango spoke in poetic terms about the architecture of the Gobbler. He likened the facility to a book, whose architectural and aesthetic chapters can be read, in order, from the time someone enters the front doors to the time they are enjoying the dining room of the facility.

Ajango said the Gobbler was completed in 1968 and a suspended lounge was added in 1970.

He related a humorous story about how designers had to revise their plan for the speed at which the famous rotating bar would spin.

Ajango said, initially, the bar took 40 minutes to make one complete rotation. He noted the speed had to be slowed to fewer RPMs, “because some people would get up from the bar to go to the bathroom and when they would come back, they'd think their friends had left them.”

Ajango said he was unsure whether or not he was able to fulfill the wishes of first owner Hartwig with his planning of the Gobbler, a building known nationwide in architectural and “kitch” circles. Hartwig died in 1979.

“Whether we beat the Fireside or not, you be the judge,” Ajango told the crowd.

Today, the “On the Road Again” program visits Beaver Dam, Columbus, Jefferson, Dousman and Oconomowoc. Seven private homes, four by Wright, one by Williamson and two by McDonald, along with a bank by Louis Sullivan and the Gobbler, will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. for guided interior tours.

On Sunday, participants will celebrate the 141st birthday of Wright with a Birthday Brunch at the Dr. Maurice and Mrs. Margaret Greenberg House in Dousman. Those attending will spend the morning in a beautiful Wright-designed house set on a boulder-strewn hill overlooking the woods of the Kettle Moraine area.