| 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.
This home is one example of Wright's work with Madison builder Marshall Erdman, who also built the Unitarian Meeting House.
In 1956, Frank Lloyd Wright designed this prefabricated Usonian house for contractor Marshall Erdman, who marketed it as the latest in his line of "U-Form-It Houses." Wright wanted this, like all his other Usonian designs, to be affordable to the middle class, so he used stock windows and doors from Andersen and Pella and standard dimensions of plywood, Masonite, and dry wall. In the Van Tamelen House, Wright’s first prefab building for Erdman's company, he used horizontal boards and battens made of Masonite and redwood. Ribbon and corner awning windows pivot outward to light the interior.
This model house, purchased by Eugene Van Tamelen, attracted the attention of the New York Times and House and Home, bringing orders for nine more. Erdman's factory prefabricated the exterior and interior wall panels in eight-foot sections and manufactured pre-cut floors, roof trusses, cabinets, and woodwork. Excluded from the package were the materials needed for the foundation, fireplace, and mechanical, plumbing, and electrical systems. In the end, the high cost of the site work, which included the installation of windows, wood trim, and interior walls, along with the cost of the prefab package, $20,000, and Wright's substantial design fee, brought the total expense close to that of a normal custom-built home, thus limiting the popularity of the Erdman houses. |
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