A Frank Lloyd Wright-Designed House in NH Is Offering a Special Tour

To celebrate the architect's 150th birthday.

By Madeline Bilis· 6/5/2017, 3:14 p.m.

Photo by mwms1916 on Flickr/Creative Commons

Thursday, June 8 marks architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s 150th birthday. While many of his modern creations are found in the Midwest, New Englanders who’d like to celebrate Frank Lloyd Wright’s birthday authentically can go to one specific place: the Zimmerman House.

Built in Manchester, NH, in 1951, the Zimmerman House is the only Wright-designed home open to the public in New England. (There’s a single Frank Lloyd Wright house in Massachusetts, but it’s a private home.) The house is operated by the Currier Museum of Art, and is typically open for tours Thursday through Monday. But on Saturday, June 11, a “Celebrating 150 Years of Frank Lloyd Wright” event kicks off at 3:15 p.m. to honor FLW’s birthday. The tour, which will be offered once more on Sunday, July 23, will focus on the Zimmerman House in relation to Wright’s career and how the house fits into design history.

The 1,600-square-foot brick home was created for Isadore and Lucille Zimmerman, a doctor and a nurse who requested a “small, spacious and simple house” from Wright. It’s classified as a Usonian home, a term Wright coined to classify small, one-story homes intended for modest living. Today, Usonian homes are considered a precursor to the American ranch house.

Wright once said, “a Usonian house is always hungry for ground, lives by it, becoming an integral feature of it.” Appropriately, the Zimmerman House appears to blend with the landscape, using floor-to-ceiling windows and natural materials to bring the outdoors in. It also boasts cabinets, shelves, and seating designed by Wright.

The Zimmerman House was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979—just less than 30 years after it was built. Convinced you need a birthday-themed tour? See currier.org for more information.