MODERN TIMES +
Winter House Hopping
As this issue’s City Report (p. 80) demon-
strates, there’s an enormous variety of
modernist design available for winter
viewing in the warm climate of the West,
but what about the rest of the country?
Here’s a selection of modernist house
museums in the South, Midwest and East,
tesy Johnson County Museums.
several of them by Frank Lloyd Wright, all
Cour
The Johnson County Museums’ 1950s House was built as
open for at least part of the winter, plus
a Kansas City Power and Light “dream house” in 1954.
three residential settings available for
overnight rental. Winter brings restrictions
Alden B. Dow Home and Office, Midland,
on many house museums’ availability;
MI: Built beginning in 1937, the residence
it is a good idea to consult websites for
and office of the architect contains its original
current schedules.
furnishings and artworks. It is constructed
SOUTH
of Unit Blocks, an invention of Alden
The Rosenbaum House, Florence, AL:
Dow’s, incorporating waste fly ash from
The South doesn’t have many Frank Lloyd
Dow Chemical manufacturing processes.
Wright houses, and only one is open
866/315-7678, www.abdow.org.
to the public: the Stanley and Mildred
Park Forest House Museum, Park Forest,
Rosenbaum House of 1939. Restored,
IL: Bauhaus concepts found their way into
with original Wright furnishings.
some of America’s midcentury public housing,
256/740-8899, www.wrightinalabama.com.
including Park Forest, which opened in 1949
The Wilson House, Dallas, TX: Built
and still serves residents today. One unit has
by Wilsonart International founder,
been restored to its 1949–53 appearance and
Ralph Wilson, Sr., in 1959, this Case
is operated as a house museum.
Study House-inspired residence served
708/748-3731, www.parkforesthistory.org.
as a test bed for new laminate products,
Charnley-Persky House Museum, Chicago,
which are used extensively in every room.
IL: This house, which Frank Lloyd Wright
Tours available Monday through Friday,
called “the first modern house in America,”
by appointment. 254/773-9898,
was designed by Louis Sullivan in 1891, with
www.wilsonart.com.
substantial input from Wright, then a designer
MIDWEST
and draftsman in Sullivan’s firm, Adler &
1950s All-Electric House, Kansas City,
Sullivan. 312/915-0105, www.sah.org.
MO: Built in 1954 as a model all-electric
EAST
house by Kansas City Power & Light and
Fallingwater, Mill Run, PA: The iconic Frank
relocated and restored in 1999, this house
Lloyd Wright house, cantilevered dramatically
embodies 1950s mass-market design,
over a waterfall, boasts an exquisitely present-
with many original “dream house” features,
ed collection of modernist furnishings original
such as a built-in television over its
to the house, with flowers and accessories
living room fireplace. 913/715-2550,
in place, so that it appears lived-in.
www.jocomuseum.org/electrichouse.htm.
724/329-8501, www.fallingwater.org.
100 www.modernismmagazine.com