Spotlight: Aldebaran Farm

A stay in a farm house once owned by Frank Lloyd Wright's family might be just the ticket for your visit to APT (Bonus: It's right around the corner from the theater!) 

Aldebaran Farm

6557 County Hwy T, Spring Green, WI 53588
www.aldebaranfarm.us | 312-401-248 | [email protected]

Tell us the history of Aldebaran?
Mike Lenehan and Mary Williams first came to APT for an escape-Chicago weekend in 1982. They fell in love with the Driftless area, and the company, and have returned almost every year since, staying mostly at Aldebaran Farm, which sits on 18 beautiful acres just across the road from Taliesin. They married, raised kids, saw countless plays, and entertained dozens of friends at the farm. When it came on the market in 2003, they knew they had to buy it.

In the 1880s it was owned by Frank Lloyd Wright’s uncle James Lloyd Jones. Young Wright spent boyhood summers there, working on the farm and developing a deep attachment to the valley where he would later build his own home.

In 1944 the property was purchased and later renovated by the architect William Wesley Peters, Wright's associate and son-in-law. Peters, who considered himself an acolyte, named the farm Aldebaran, which is Arabic for "the follower" and the name of a bright red star in the constellation Taurus.

In 2016 Mike, a writer and editor by trade, published a book about APT, Much Ado: A Summer With a Repertory Theater Company (Agate Midway). Today he and Mary welcome theater fans, architecture buffs, and Driftless area tourists to enjoy the house and discover the valley as they first did 40 years ago.

How does the farmhouse fit into the Spring Green community?
By 2003 the people we bought the property from had given up on weekly and weekend rentals. They were getting on, and it was too much work for them, so they were renting to APT for the entire summer. We were glad, as were many longtime renters, that we could open it up again for short term visitors.

Tell us something unique about Aldebaran.
Besides our history and our breathtaking views, we're larger than most of the rentals available in the area, with sleeping room for up to 12. Also one of the closest rentals to the theater, Taliesin, and the Wisconsin River.