| Additional Information: | A 'site file' exists for this property. It contains additional information such as correspondence, newspaper clippings, or historical information. It is a public record and may be viewed in person at the Wisconsin Historical Society, State Historic Preservation Office.
J IN THE PHOTO CODES IS SHORT FOR JAS. M IN THE PHOTO CODES IS SHORT FOR JMD; ALSO SEE THE JMD DESK FILE. MAP CODE = 0709-282-0512-3.
This house and Taliesin have been added to the UNESCO World Heritage List.
This house of 1936 and 1937 is the first of Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian houses. Is listed as a NHL. Madison Historic Landmark: 5/20/1974
This is Wright's "first Usonian" with in-floor heating, carport, and characteristic L-shape. This home is one of ten key works of Wright's modern architecture nominated to the UNESCO World Heritage list. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Frank Lloyd Wright designed several dwellings like this one to respond to the nationwide demand for cheap housing. Many architects and builders looked to prefabrication and mass production as the solution. Wright’s answer was the so-called Usonian house, which mixed simplicity and new construction methods to evoke what he called a "spirit of democracy."
Wright’s first opportunity to build one came when Madison newspaperman Herbert Jacobs and his wife Katherine challenged him to create an inexpensive residence, the first Usonian. Including the architect's fee of $450, the residence cost just $5,500 in 1937 (made possible in part by scavenging surplus bricks from the Johnson Administration Building project in Racine). After an illustration of the house appeared in Architectural Forum, Wright eventually won commissions to design 140 more Usonian houses across the country.
The Usonian grew out of the Prairie School’s horizontal lines, earth tones, and natural materials. Wright used horizontal siding made from interlocking pine boards and recessed redwood battens; raked or grooved mortar joints in the masonry, which produced a strong shadow line; and a flat roof with wide overhangs, which seemed to float atop a narrow ribbon of windows. Yet, in the interest of economy, Wright eliminated the attic and basement, set the house on a concrete slab with heating under the floor, and consolidated the utilities into a single core. Moreover, he replaced balloon-frame construction with prefabricated walls that sandwiched a plywood core between layers of building paper and wooden siding. He incorporated a carport and introduced track lighting to save money. In the interior, Wright eliminated the dining room and made it merely a specialized area of the living room, defined by the placement of the furniture. To keep the house within budget, he also used walls of exposed brick or wood, eliminating the need for wallpaper, paint, or siding.
Wright designed the house to turn its back on the street to provide privacy, while the L-shaped plan wrapping around the terrace and garden area opens to the rear. In contrast to the nearly blank street facade, the rear walls consist almost entirely of custom-made glass doors and windows, permitting natural light to enter the house and bringing the outdoors indoors.
Only seven years after the Jacobs moved in, they decided to move farther out of town and had Wright design a second house.
Covenant/Easement: In Perpetuity. Effective 3-23-2010. A 'covenant file' exists for this property. It may contain additional information such as photos, drawings and correspondence. It is a public record and may be viewed in person at the Wisconsin Historical Society, State Historic Preservation Office. |
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| Bibliographic References: | Westmorland Courier (Madison, Wis.), vol. LXXIII, no. 6, 11/2009.
WESTMORLAND: A GREAT PLACE TO LIVE. MADISON: WESTMORLAND NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOC., 2011, PP. 39-41.
Wright and Like Madison Walking Tour brochure, 2015.
Buildings of Wisconsin manuscript.
Sandstone and Buffalo Robes: Madison's historic buildings, third edition, 1975.
Westmorland Neighborhood Association, Westmorland A Walking Tour, 2012.
Perrin, Richard W. E., Historic Wisconsin Architecture, First Revised Edition (Milwaukee, 1976). |
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