Property Record
3733 LIGHTHOUSE DR
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | Robert and Rita Albert House |
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| Other Name: | |
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| Reference Number: | 51506 |
| Location (Address): | 3733 LIGHTHOUSE DR |
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| County: | Racine |
| City: | North Bay |
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| Year Built: | 1940 |
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| Additions: | 1945 |
| Survey Date: | 1994 |
| Historic Use: | house |
| Architectural Style: | Usonian |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Stone - Unspecified |
| Architect: | Edgar Tafel |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Not listed |
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| National Register Listing Date: | |
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| 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. The Albert's lived here until at least 1994. The Albert House is a two-story structure, built of stone, glass, and wood, that sits near the end of a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan in the Village of North Bay. It was built in two stages. The first, in 1940, contained a living room, dining room, kitchen, four bedrooms, and several baths, along with a workshop and storerooms. The second, in 1945, added a library, a conservatory, two more bedrooms, and a bath. The house seems to nestle down into the bank, creating the feeling that its structure is actually part of the earth and rock on which it is built. It also seems to come out toward the lake in ledges that end at a narrow beach. Stone masses and cypress roofs, both hipped and flat, which shelter the wide expanses of windows that are canted toward the lake and look out upon it on three sides. A broad concrete terrace at the front of the house on the lake side juts out toward the water like the prow of a ship. The house seems so much a part of its site partly because Robert Albert terraced and landscaped the land around it. The garden surrounding the house follows the levels of the house and of the land, merging the two into one composition. The Albert House is significant under Criterion C as the work of Edgar Tafel (1912- ), one of Frank Lloyd Wright's first apprentices at the Taliesin Fellowship, and an accomplished architect in his own right. The Albert House was Tafel's first architectural commission, and Tafel himself credits Wright with making many helpful suggestions on its design. The house is also Tafel's most dynamic and successful design in the Racine area, perhaps because the building's budget was not as limited as the budgets for some of his later Racine houses undoubtedly were. It is the finest house in the Racine area in the Wrightian mode, other than those designed by the master himself. A 1945 addition, also designed by Tafel, includes a library, conservatory, two more bedrooms, and a bath. While Tafel was in Racine he was approached by attorney Robert Albert and his wife, Rita, who asked him to design a house for them on the lot they owned overlooking Lake Michigan. Albert became so involved in the construction of the house that he decided to establish his own construction firm. An article in the Milwaukee Journal on October 2, 1949, quotes Albert, "I was practicing law in Racine when we broke ground for the house in July, 1940, but I soon was spending more time overseeing the construction job than I was at the office." Albert went on to build several Tafel houses, and in the late 1940s and mid 1950s, associated with architect John Randal McDonald in the construction of approximately twenty houses and other projects in Racine and southeast Wisconsin. |
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| Bibliographic References: | (A) The Milwaukee Journal, October 2, 1949, Home Section, p. 16. (B) Informal interview with Edgar Tafel, April 1994. (C) Racine City Directories, 1941-1994. Preservation Racine Tour of Historic Places Guidebook, 2008. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |