If you grew up in America in the last hundred years, there's a good chance you built a cabin out of Lincoln Logs. Those little notched wooden pieces stacked into forts, ranch houses, and frontier homes on many a living room rug. They feel like pure American history in a box.
Here's the short answer: Lincoln Logs were invented around 1916 by John Lloyd Wright, the second son of the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright. John had gone to Japan to help with his father's design of the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. The hotel's construction used beams designed to interlock as a way to help the building stand up to earthquakes, and John realized the same idea could become a children's toy.
A Father, a Son, and a Falling-Out
John had trained with his father, though he struggled under Frank's strong personality. When Frank took on the Imperial Hotel, John went along to Japan to help oversee the project. Then the two argued over John's salary. John was fired, and father and son became estranged.
Without an architecture practice, John turned to one of his hobbies: toys. He perfected the design for his notched logs, an idea he had conceived while in Japan, and brought it to market with his own money.
From Red Square to Lincoln Logs
John started the Red Square Toy Company, named after his father's famous symbol, and began selling the toy in 1918. He received a patent for his "Toy-Cabin Construction" on August 31, 1920, and soon changed the company name to J. L. Wright Manufacturing.
The name honored Abraham Lincoln, who was born in and lived in a log cabin. The first sets even came with instructions for building Lincoln's cabin. The logs were notched just like real cabin logs, so they could be stacked at right angles to form walls, and later sets added roofs, chimneys, doors, windows, animals, and little people.
The toy was a hit, arriving a few years after Meccano, Tinkertoys, and the Erector Set. Lincoln Logs are believed to be the first toy marketed to both boys and girls.
The Hotel's Earthquake Legend
The Imperial Hotel became famous for surviving the Great Kantō earthquake of September 1, 1923. A telegram to Frank Lloyd Wright claimed the hotel stood undamaged, and he passed it along to reporters. That helped create the legend that the building was practically earthquake-proof.
The truth was a bit messier. The hotel was damaged: its central section slumped, some floors bulged, and a kitchen fire broke out. Plenty of other buildings in Tokyo actually came through with less damage. The hotel's shallow foundation, designed to float on soft mud "as a battleship floats on water," eventually let the building sink so much that it was torn down decades later.
A Hall of Fame Toy
The legend of the hotel may have grown in the retelling, but the toy it inspired earned its fame honestly. In 1999, Lincoln Logs and John Lloyd Wright were inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame. The original sets were made of redwood, and while the company tried all-plastic sets in the 1970s, it soon went back to real wood.
So the next time you see a little log cabin taking shape on the floor, you can share a fun piece of trivia. Those humble logs owe a debt to a grand hotel in Tokyo and a son who found his own way to build.
