The acres
This Frank Lloyd Wright house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It seamlessly blends into its natural surroundings, like many of his designs. It's been in the original family since it was built and retains all of its natural characteristics: concrete floors, skylights, Honduran mahogany, and built-in bookshelves and desks.
The house is just over 2,400 square feet, with three bedrooms, and two full baths. Here’s a look inside this rare midcentury gem.
Overview
The Weisblats moved into their house in 1951. It was the first Acres home completed and is joined by the Eppstein and Pratt homes in the same neighborhood, it was designed using Wright’s “in-line” plan. The workspace, living, and dining areas are again nearer to the street toward the southern end of the plan, while the original bedrooms and baths are lined up along a gallery running north.
The Weisblats participated in the construction of their home, the crew made all the concrete blocks by hand on site yet Wright did not send over any instructions so there were many evenings spent figuring out how to make the blocks.
Inside, the only major room without windows is the workspace. A door to the small, walled yard at the southeast corner of the house allows some light inside, but the primary source of light in the workspace is a skylight that was part of Wright’s original plan.
In 1961, an addition, designed by John Howe and William Wesley Peters, was made to the Weisblat House, adding a long gallery, a utility room, a full bath, another study, a green house, and a potting shed. Though it differs somewhat in construction method, “it seems a natural extension of the original house.” A fourteen-by-twenty-foot pond was also dug at this time.
Other than the 1961 addition, no other changes were made to the Weisblat house, and all interior and exterior surfaces retain their originally specified finishes.
Located in a subdivision in Galesburg, MI, just outside Kalamazoo, stands four Usonian homes built by Frank Lloyd Wright. One of those homes, the David and Christine Weisblat House, is for sale for the first time. The price? $510,000.
The subdivision known as The Acres, was created in 1949 by a group of scientists who worked at Upjohn in Kalamazoo (there’s also another Wright subdivision located right in Kalamazoo, near Western Michigan University). The plots are circular, with trails and wooded areas throughout.
