Visionary architect Frank Lloyd Wright had a career worthy of his unmatched talent.
A key figure who shaped the world of architecture as we know it, Wright pioneered several architectural movements in his lengthy and prolific 70-year career, including the Prairie School movement and the Usonian concept.
He also mentored hundreds of budding architects through his Taliesin Fellowship, wrote books, and served as a lecturer in both the U.S. and Europe, passing along his organic architecture philosophy to new generations of talented designers.
Recognized as the most influential American architect of all time, Wright kept himself quite busy over the years. He designed more than 1,000 buildings throughout his life, ranging from personal homes to churches, museums, hotels, and even a skyscraper here and there (Wright was behind Oklahoma’s 19-story Price Tower).
And while everyone might be familiar with some of his most famous works, like the Guggenheim Museum in New York or Fallingwater, the Pennsylvania house built atop a gushing waterfall, or his own Wisconsin home, the tragically fated Taliesin estate, there are hundreds of other Frank Lloyd Wright houses for us to admire.
So today, we thought we’d turn our eyes to some lesser-known Frank Lloyd Wright designs, and show you a selection of the architect’s other homes — and expand our knowledge beyond Fallingwater, the Hollyhock House, or Taliesin.
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Tirranna (Running Waters)
We’ll start with one of the architect’s last works, a mid-century masterpiece in New Canaan, Connecticut, known as Tirranna — a moniker inspired by an Australian Aboriginal word meaning “running waters”, as the home is cantilevered over a pond, overlooking a waterfall on the Noroton River.
The house was built by Wright in 1955, just a few years before his death in 1959. The architect worked on it while building the Guggenheim Museum, and even used some of the scalloped glass windows from the Guggenheim Museum project to complete the home’s south-facing greenhouse.
Nathan G. Moore House
Also known as the Moore-Dugal Residence, this Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house was built one block south of the architect’s own home and studio in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois.
With its steep, gabled roof, the three-story home was completed in 1895, and to this day remains the only English Tudor-styled home Lloyd would ever design. The architect was reportedly never really happy with this project.
The Arthur B. Heurtley House
Also set in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois, where the architect worked and lived, the Arthur Heurtley House is possibly the most significant property on our list.
Built in 1902, the Heurtley House is considered to be one of the earliest examples of a Frank Lloyd Wright house in full Prairie style — and one of his greatest residential designs. Resting on a concrete base, the strikingly modern 20th design has neither a basement nor an attic.
According to the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, the home’s interior is equally radical, reversing the typical floor plan by placing the living and dining areas on the second floor of the house.
Walter Gale Residence
The Walter H. Gale House, the first home Wright designed after leaving the firm of Adler & Sullivan, was built in 1893 in Oak Park, Illinois, for Walter H. Gale, a member of a prominent local family.
Designed in a geometric Queen Anne style, the property was the first out of a series of modest homes designed in 1892 and 1893, two of which are located on the same street.
Thomas Gale House
Right next door to the Walter Gale house we find another project Frank Lloyd Wright designed for the family.
Known as the Thomas H. Gale Residence or the Thomas and Laura Gale House, it was designed while Wright was still working at the architecture firm of Adler & Sullivan — which forbade its architects from taking outside commissions.
Not one to follow the rules, the architect took on the Oak Park project anyway, and lucky he did, as the landmarked house now stands as a testament to Wright’s early development period. It’s also one of the trio of properties known as the “Bootleg Houses” Wright built for the Gale family on the same street.
Robert P. Parker House
The third of the “Bootleg Houses”, the Robert P. Parker House is also a landmark building, listed as a contributing property to the Frank Lloyd Wright-Prairie School of Architecture Historic District.
While generally cast in the Queen Anne style of architecture, the Parker House has more ample rounded forms than the common Queen Anne homes being built at the time.
The Bachman-Wilson House
A spectacular example of Frank Lloyd Wright’s classic Usonian architecture, the Bachman-Wilson house was originally designed in 1954 for Gloria Bachman Wilson and Abraham Wilson, and built along the Millstone River in New Jersey.
But the location placed it in imminent danger, with repeated flooding threatening to destroy the structure.
The home’s later owners — architects Lawrence and Sharon Tarantino — meticulously restored the property and sold it to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, where it was later carefully relocated. Nowadays, architecture fans can go see it at Crystal Bridges, with free general admission tickets available.
Herbert Johnson Residence (Wingspread)
In Wind Point, Wisconsin, Wright built a house that looks like it’s about to set flight.
The largest residence the architect ever built and, according to Wright, the best-constructed, this sprawling 1938-built house was created for Johnson Wax president Herbert Fisk Johnson Jr. and his family.
One of his most elaborate — and expensive — designs, Wingspread consists of a central hub, from which four long arms radiate, hence the name.
Fun fact: a young John Lautner, then one of the architect’s apprentices, was the one to oversee the construction of this project (which I would argue explains his futuristic later designs, at least in part).
Edward R. Hills House
The Edward R. Hills House, also known as the Hills–DeCaro House, takes us back to the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois.
Here, we see two distinct phases in Wright’s career meet and work in harmony: the house contains some elements of both the Prairie style and the designs with which Wright experimented throughout the 1890s. But not many of them have survived over the years.
The house was altered several times between 1912 and 1965, and was later engulfed in flames during a 1976 fire, which required it to be rebuilt and partially restored.
Meyer May House
In Grand Rapids, Michigan, the architect delivered what is now known as “Michigan’s Prairie masterpiece,” the Meyer May House.
Commissioned in 1908 by Meyer S. May, president of May’s clothing store in Grand Rapids, the architecturally distinct structure contrasts the rest of the Victorian houses in the historical neighborhood of Heritage Hill — which was likely Meyer May’s intended purpose.
Samuel and Dorothy Eppstein House
In Michigan, the architect created a few homes in The Acres/Galesburg Country Homes community near Kalamazoo, listed under the National Register of Historic Places thanks to its impressive roster of real estate gems.
Two of them were listed for sale in 2023 — the Eppstein House and the Pratt House — with the latter selling in June 2024 for $1.8 million.
Constructed in 1953 at 11090 Hawthorne Dr in Galesburg, MI, the Eppstein House (also known as the Samuel and Dorothy Eppstein House) embodies open floor plans and indoor-outdoor living — both of which were innovative concepts for the period.
The Pratt House
Right next door to the Eppstein House, on two and a half acres of scenic land, lies 11036 Hawthorne Drive — better known as the 1951 Pratt House — which consists of 2,200 square feet of architectural brilliance.
The house boasts sleek minimalist lines inside and out, with the same mahogany and concrete foundations as its sibling property.
The Gordon House
Frank Lloyd Wright’s only design in Oregon, and one of the architect’s last Usonian homes, the Gordon House was designed in 1956, but built only after his death, in 1964.
Originally located near Wilsonville, Oregon, the Gordon House was saved from demolition in 2001 (as the new owners wanted to make way for a larger structure to take its place) and was later moved to Silverton, Oregon. It is now operated as a museum by the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.
Darwin D. Martin House
Considered to be one of the most important designs of Wright’s career, the Martin House in Buffalo, New York was originally part of a larger estate that Wright designed as a series of connected buildings.
Born out of Wright’s decades-long friendship with Darwin Martin, a business executive in Buffalo, the six-building Martin House Complex consisted of the main Martin House, the neighboring Barton House (named after Martin’s brother-in-law, George Barton), a carriage house, conservatory, gardener’s cottage, and 100-foot-long pergola, the complex spanned more than 30,000 square feet.
Some of the structures were demolished over the years, only to be rebuilt later on.
William and Jessie M. Adams House
Set on South Pleasant Avenue in Chicago, Illinois, the square two-story house known as the Adams House was built at the turn of the 20th Century, between 1900 and 1901.
One of the few Frank Lloyd Wright-designed houses set in Chicago proper, the house was owned by the same family for over half a century — from 1952 to 2014 — when it sold for a modest $980,000. The two-story home is also a Chicago landmark.
Lowell and Agnes Walter House
Much like the Darwin D. Martin House in Buffalo, the Lowell and Agnes Walter Estate in Quasqueton, Iowa (Cedar Rock State Park) consists of several structures: the house, council fire, river pavilion, and formal entrance gate.
The beautifully preserved Usonian home is reportedly one of the architect’s most complete designs, with nearly everything inside the Lowell Walter House bearing the architect’s imprint.
Wright designed the furniture, selected the carpets, chose the draperies, and even picked out the accessories, with many of them still on display. And just in case you were wondering, the answer is “Yes”, you can go visit it whenever you find yourself in the Iowa countryside.
Rev. Jesse R. Zeigler House
The only Frank Lloyd Wright structure built in Kentucky, the Zeigler House in Frankfort was built for Reverend Jesse R. Ziegler, a Presbyterian minister whom Frank met in Europe.
The structure is a typical example of Wright’s “A Fireproof House for $5000”, but for Ziegler, Wright also added a screen and piers to conceal the front entrance and porches of the living and dining rooms. According to the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust, the house “features an impressive program of copper- and zinc-camed windows and French doors”.
B. Harley Bradley Residence
A transitional piece that’s said to mark the beginning of Wright’s Prairie style, the B. Harley Bradley House in Kankakee, Illinois is also known as Glenlloyd.
Originally built for B. Harley Bradley, and his wife, Anna Hickox Bradley in 1900, the house had many uses over the years. It served as a personal home, office complex, and even an internationally acclaimed restaurant at one point. It’s now operated as a museum and is open to visitors.
F.B. Henderson House
Another early Prairie-style design, the 1901-built house in Elmhurst, Illinois was one of just a few built during Wright’s brief partnership with Webster Tomlinson, the only partnership Wright ever had.
The house, registered in the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, has over 80 art glass windows, elegant woodwork, three brick fireplaces, and many built-ins.
J. Kibben Ingalls House
Frank Lloyd Wright built his charming residence in River Forest, Illinois, in 1909 for James Kibben Ingalls, the president of the Western Heater Dispatch railroad car company. The architect’s former draughtsman, William Drummond, completed the residence in 1917 with the addition of a garage for the property.
Zimmerman House
Now a museum, the Zimmerman House in Manchester, New Hampshire is one of only two houses Wright built in the state — with the second, the Toufic H. Kalil House, being located on the same street.
Built in 1951 for Dr. Isadore Zimmerman and his wife Lucille, it’s a single-story structure set on a floating concrete slab. The Zimmermans later donated the house to the Currier Museum of Art, which currently organizes tours of the property.
Allen House
In Wichita, Kansas, we find the last of Wright’s Prairie residences, the Allen House.
Designed in 1915 for former Kansas Governor Henry Justin Allen and his wife, Elsie, the home also has Japanese influences — as Wright was working on the Imperial Hotel in Japan at the time.
Now open to visitors, the Allen House features more than 30 pieces of Wright-designed furniture, all of its original art glass, and several new-for-their-time innovations, such as wall-hung water closets and an attached garage.
Which one did you love most?
Spanning the architect’s prolific 70-year career, the houses we’ve seen today have various styles and influences — with each more unique than the next. But which one of them caught your eye? Or which other Frank Lloyd Wright design were you hoping to land a spot on our list? Let us know in the comments.
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