William E. Slatton

Bill Slatton was born in 1933 in Texon, Texas a small town named for the Texon Oil and Land Company who discovered oil nearby in 1928. Slatton would later recall that this was the first productive oil well in the Great Permian Basin. As a young man, on the oil derricks, during World War II, Bill Slatton honed his welding craft – a skill he learned as a hobbyist building a dunebuggy for himself. Following high school, Bill attended Georgia Tech. After one year, out of money, and following his father’s passing, he moved to California with his mother. Bill joined the US Army and spent 2.5 years at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.

Inspired by a high school drafting class, and his brief connection to Georgia Tech’s architecture program, a young Mr. Slatton continued to think about his prospects as a designer. “I was in the Army with Dick [Armand Z. ‘Dick’ Bollaert – Ed.]…he made his career out of carpentry…his grandfather worked as an engineer for Mr. Wright in Chicago,” Slatton would later recall. Armand’s mother wrote Frank Lloyd Wright a letter stating that the two boys wanted to study with him. On August 20, 1956 Billy E. Slatton sent Mr. Wright his fellowship application and $200 offering to arrive between August 30 and September 16.

Armand and Bill would work together rebuilding Taliesin West’s drafting room from floor to ceiling while the Fellowship was in Wisconsin for the summer.

“I was married in North Carolina the summer before I went to Mr. Wright’s. [His wife] Anne, was pregnant so she stayed with my mother in California. While I was the Wrights’ ‘family server’, Mrs. Wright mentioned that they had received a telegram saying my baby was born…. I recall arriving in October, 1956 and Anne joined me several months later,” Slatton would recollect [According to Taliesin records Anne Slatton Davis was at Taliesin in 1957 – Ed.]. We had a private apartment in the farmer’s cottage midway between Taliesin and the private homes. Anne wasn’t entirely comfortable during her stay…she had a baby in March and was tired during her recovery…so she left to stay with her parents again…but then she spent the summer with us (as Dick and I rebuilt the drafting Room)…,” Slatton would remember.

“The highlight of my life was being at Taliesin for two and a half years… There were several of us that really worked hard while we were there… About 20 years ago, I saw John Rattenbury, who was at Taliesin for his entire career, and he said “…of all the people who have been here, I can name only a handful of folks that really meant something…” Alongside John, doing the electrical work, we worked through the night all the time… we were working day and night to keep ahead of the other workers… and got to know one another very well…,” recalled Bill Slatton.

Bill Slatton worked alongside Frank Lloyd Wright between 1956 and the year of his mentor’s passing in 1959. “I arrived, on the GI Bill, on Saturday afternoon. At my first Sunday morning breakfast, someone came up to me and told me that Mr. Wright wanted to speak with me… The night before Tom Olsen’s car battery had fallen out so I welded it up for him. Tom told Mr. Wright about my welding abilities… and Mrs. Wright was asking for a roof up over their theater pavilion… so Mr. Wright asked me to weld up the theater roof… building the steel roof for the big pavilion was my job for the first 4 months I was at Taliesin. Mr. Wright wanted it to look ‘light and floating,’ Following that, he had me build a model for a wedding chapel for a big hotel in Oakland… and I couldn’t get it right. Mr. Wright asked me to build the model as if I was welding it up… Then there was the time I was asked to weld up a bunch tables for Easter. I took apart many of the roofs at Taliesin and rebuilt them in steel. As you walk to the office at Taliesin, there’s a small fountain, it used to be turned the other way and made a loud noise… Mr. Wright asked me to rebuild the fountain and to surprise him when he returned from making a speech in Tucson. I ended up turning it around and cutting holes in the boiler… much to the delight of Mr. Wright when he arrived back. When Mr. Wright died I helped pack up the trucks as they left for Wisconsin…When I was going to stay the summer of 1959, after Wright’s death, I came to Taliesin and they had decided to go back to Arizona for a few weeks, as it was too cold. Bob Graves, who grew up on the farm next to Wright… I worked on some work crews planting some trees Bob had marked out. “

Mr. Slatton arrived in San Diego, a struggling draftsman, and found work in architect Harold Abrams’ office in 1959. In the years ahead he would work in the offices of William Lumpkins, Loch Crane, Lloyd Ruocco, Homer Delawie and Frederick Liebhardt. When the Ruocco Delawie firm split up, Bill stayed with Lloyd Ruocco - only to eventually work for Homer Delawie’s firm alongside Alfonso Macy and Jack Matteson.

With Kendrick Bangs Kellogg, whom he had met shortly after his arrival while building models for architects like Leonard Veitzer, Slatton joined forces (though both were yet to be licensed) to create the Onion House on the Kona Coast of Hawaii. “The Onion House was like being back at Taliesin,” Slatton would later recall. On site welding the structure together, James Hubbell would join the crew creating tile and stained glass to compliment the structure and its surrounding landscape.

Partial List of Projects

Commander Mark (Mac) (George Hamilton) and Louise McWhorter Residence (1970)
1087 Merritt Lane, El Cajon

With architect Loch Crane
Roper, Cecil and Virginia Residence (1964)
5147 Cape May Avenue

Shopping Center
Pacific Beach

With architect Homer Delawie
Playa del Oro Apartments
Thompson Medical Library (1968)
Uno Andrusson Residence (1967)
Mexico Pacific Shop (1964)
San Diego Zoo gorilla enclosure
Tel Aviv Zoo

With James Hubbell
Triton Restaurant
College Area
“Jim or his sons may have the slides for a restaurant on which I provide drawings and construction, Jim was the designer. It was the “(Triton)Fish Restaurant” which was located on El Cajon near College. They lost their lease and built a new one in Del Mar. The inside was like a sea grotto. All sculptured and curved niches, was very nice and very popular. This was built as a Bank. I worked with his former cooks and waiters from his restaurant in PB, no skilled people, and 2 guys from Jim’s little staff. I remember submitting drawings in several stage as we kept on working under a “foundation only” permit. I believe this would be worth spending some time researching.”

With architect Ken Kellogg
Onion House (1962-63)
Holualoa/Kailua-Kona, Hawaii

With architect Frederick Liebhardt
La Jolla Country Day School (Additions, 1968-69)
9490 Genessee Avenue, La Jolla

La Jolla Methodist Church (1968)
6063 La Jolla Blvd, La Jolla

Sea Lodge Hotel & Restaurant (1969)
Camino Del Oro, La Jolla

With architects Bob Rosenthal & Bill Moises
“With Bob Rosenthal, Bill Moises and I provide the drawings for the Surgery Center on Frost Street, a two story facility. It was the Charger’s orthopedic group. This was maybe 1970 or so. Bill Moises and I worked on several Medical Buildings with Bob Rosenthal, mostly in the SF Bay Area.” (2-story steel frame surgical building off 395, possibly sharp hospital?) “…worked on several medical buildings with Bill Moises (we had an office together, then had a handshake partnership… with Bob Rosenthal) we did 4 or 5 medical buildings up in san Francisco…”

With architect Lloyd Ruocco
Dr. Edel Residence (1963)
1317 Windridge Drive, El Cajon

With architect Frank Lloyd Wright
Marin County Civic Center (1957)

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (1956)

Robert H. Sunday House Bedroom Addition (1959)
“The Sunday House – was my first drafting job under Jack Howe.”