Two Michigan homes by architect Frank Lloyd Wright hit the market for $4.5 million
The neighboring Frank Lloyd Wright homes — the Epstein House and the Pratt House — are for sale in Kalamazoo County with an asking price of $4.5 million.
However, the original furniture designed by Wright in the homes is a plus.
“I refer to it as a piece of artwork that you can live in,” Fred Taber of Jaqua Realtors told the Free Press, adding that it’s “better than a painting” because you don’t just put it on the wall and look at it. You can go inside, walk around, sleep in and “stay there.”
Wright – an American architect, who designed more than 1,000 buildings during his lifetime – aimed to create spaces in harmony with their natural surroundings, a philosophy he called organic architecture, but it is rare, if not unique, to have two of them next to each other. .
He was also known for following strict standards and designing everything, including the furnishings, which are now collectible and can fetch big bucks, which is why the home’s listing agent said they were not included in the deal.
The homes at 11090 and 11036 Hawthorne Dr. have reportedly been on the market for weeks, but recently gained attention on social media after WZZM-TV aired a segment on the home, showing what it looks like inside, and interviewing current homes. Owners, Tony and Marika Hillebrandt.
“I think I found him by chance on the Internet,” Tony Hillebrandt told the Grand Rapids station. Marika Hillebrandt added: “We looked at each other and pressured each other behind the real estate agent’s back. We had no idea that any normal person could own a Frank Lloyd Wright property.”
The Hillebrandts have invested about $1 million to renovate the homes and rent them for $400 to $600 a night, Taber said. The houses, like many others designed by Wright, are referred to by the names of their original owners.
If a new buyer rents the homes, they would likely make up to $500,000 a year, Taber said.
One of the Frank Lloyd Wright tables in the house, which is not for sale with the house, will likely sell at auction for around $250,000. The Wisconsin-born architect is credited as a pioneer of the Prairie School movement and the concept of the Usonian house, a word he used to describe the New World character of the American landscape.
The agent said the homes are being sold together. The listing claims that “never in the history of Frank Lloyd Wright architecture have two adjacent homes been offered together in one sale,” and touts the deal as “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to own a piece of architectural history.” “.
The 2,300-square-foot Eppstein House features a low profile, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a skylight façade that opens to a terrace overlooking a meadow. Pratt’s 2,200-square-foot home has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a study and a studio.
Falling Water, built over a waterfall, in Pennsylvania is one of his most famous homes.
In the late 1940s, a group of scientists from the Upjohn Pharmaceutical Company purchased a plot of land to build homes and asked Wright to design a subdivision. However, only five of them have been developed, and two of them are now for sale.
The development, in Charleston Township, is known as Acres, short for Galesburg Country Homes Acres, or Galesburg Country Homes, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places — a list of buildings worthy of preservation — in 2004.
Here, according to franklloydwrightsites.com, are some other Wright-designed homes in Michigan, in the order they were built:
1894: George Blossom’s summer home, North Manitou Island
1902: Arthur Hurtley’s Summer Cottage, Cedarville
1902: Walter Geerts Cottage, 5392 South Shore Dr., Whitehall
1902: George Geerts Duplex, 5260 South Shore Dr., Whitehall
1910: Amberg House, 505 College Street, Grand Rapids
1916: Ernest Vosburg House, 46208 Crescent Road, New Buffalo
1916: Joseph Bagley House, 47017 Lakeview, New Buffalo
1936: Abby Beecher Roberts House, County Hwy. 492, Marquette
1939: Goetsch-Finkler House, 2410 Howlett Road, Okemos
1941: Affleck House, 925 Bloomfield Woods Court, Bloomfield Hills
1941: Carlton Wool House, 12305 Peck Road, Plymouth
1947: Amy Albaugh Studio, 71 North Peterson Park Road, Northport
1948: Erling Brawner House, 2527 Arrowhead Road, Okemos1948: David Weisblatt House, 11185 Hawthorne Dr., Galesburg
1948: Robert Wayne House, 2822 Taliesin Dr., Kalamazoo
1949: Robert Levin House, 2816 Taliesin Dr., Kalamazoo
1949: James Edwards House, 2504 Arrowhead Road, Okemos
1949: Melvin Maxwell Smith House, 5045 Boone Valley Road, Bloomfield Hills
1949: Ward McCartney House, 2662 Taliesin Dr., Kalamazoo
1949: Howard Anthony House, 1150 Miami Road, Benton Harbor
1950: Curtis Meyer House, 11108 Hawthorne Dr., Galesburg
1950: Donald Schaberg House, 1155 Wright Wind Dr., Okemos
1953: Lewis Goddard House, 12221 Peck Road, Plymouth
1955: Turkle House, 2760 W. 7 Mile Rd., Detroit
1957: Carl Schultz House, 2704 Highland Ct., St. Joseph
1959: Eric Brown House, 2806 Taliesin Dr., Kalamazoo
1959: Iat the Morris Harper House, 2598 Old Lakeshore Rd., St. Joseph
Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@freepress.com.
