Historic house museums aren’t just for Early American revolutionaries, pioneer settlers or Victorians any more. Yes, as appreciation for mid-20th century architecture has grown, so has the number of historic house museums. Kate and I have been working for several weeks to research and prepare what we believe is the first conclusive list of mid-century and modern historic house museums that you can visit and see. In the USA. In your Chevrolet, even.
Our list includes 59 mid century and modern house museums. A number of these are iconic, architect-designed “mid-century modern” masterpiece houses. But we also were somewhat liberal in including other early- and mid-20th historic houses that played key roles in the evolution of mid century residential architecture and the “modern” way we still live today. There are quite a few houses by Frank Lloyd Wright that fall into our “extremely influential” but not really “mid-century” category, for example.
Houses generally become “historic” for one of two reasons (or both): (1) Their architecture is special, or (2) Someone historic lived there. Reflecting this, the houses in our roundup are there for a variety of reasons — and we believe this diversity helps illuminate the story of mid-century America. In addition to the houses that are important examples of mid century and modern residential architecture, our list includes celebrity houses where Elvis, Sinatra, and Louis Armstrong lived… a number of “biographical” houses including from Russel Wright, Georgia O’Keefe, and Jackson Pollock and Louise Krasner… There are two presidential estates… and we dug and dug and dug to find two Lustron houses open to the public! We take the research all the way to one “post modern” house, a 1982 design by Frank Gehry. Don’t be harassing us, please, if you don’t like the way we sliced and diced the list; be nice; we were trying to show the love for 20th century modern and modern-esque houses that haven’t quite made it onto others’ formal lists yet. Also, we started to get cross-eyed after a while of hashing what’s “in” the list and “what’s out”. We kinda wanted to be done already.
If so, please let us know!
with lots of “bonus” photos you won’t find on the house websites
by clicking here.
Cedar Rock in Iowa is a must see.
http://www.iowadnr.gov/Places-to-Go/State-Parks/Iowa-State-Parks/ParkDetails/ParkID/3
Boy, I am bummed…nothing in the Rocky Mountain west where I am…but. But! There is a wonderful museum in Denver, the Kirkland Museum of Fine and Decorative Art which has within it, Vance Kirkland’s (1904-1981) original painting studio, which is full of his own tschotchkes from the 20th century. And the museum itself is dedicated to 20th century decorative arts. http://www.kirklandmuseum.org/
Florida has no house museums on this list, but it does have a university designed by Frank Lloyd Wright — Florida Southern University — with the largest concentration of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings anywhere in the world (10 plus 2 structures). And it’s open to the public. Here’s a website about it:
http://franklloydwrightatfsc.com/
Thank you, Joel!
If you ever update your list I have a wonderful addition! The Rolling Meadows Historical Museum. Visitors who enter the house will feel they have been transported through time to the actual home of a 1950s Rolling Meadows homemaker. The Historical Museum was designed as a replica of the 1st ranch-style homes constructed in the community by Rolling Meadows founder Kimball Hill in 1953. Displays of donated historical documents, photos, and finishings of the 1950s era are combined to create authentic interior spaces within the home. LOVE THIS BLOG!!!
Thank you, Susan!
Thanks for adding the Rolling Meadows house. Was tickled to see it on the list. 🙂
LBJ RANCH – STONEWALL, TX – The National Park Service is temporarily closing the Texas White House and the adjacent Pool House until further notice due to health and safety concerns arising from structural issues. Both facilities are located within Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park. (Hope it’s preserved!)
My former family home since 1949 isn’t a museum for tours–but in the past 10 years it is a house museum that you can sleep in that reflects the 1950s, 60s and 70s.
Check out
http://www.pricetower.org
In Bartlesville OK
The Del Webb Sun Cities Museum, located in the original model home in Phoenix, is small but worth a stop!
https://delwebbsuncitiesmuseum.org/
https://ricenorthwestmuseum.org/
While this is a rock and mineral museum (and an amazing one), it is in a home built in 1952 by the founders. At that time the collection was in the basement, now it’s in all the rooms. There are amazing bathrooms in lovely colors (the pink!). The volunteers have always been accommodating in showing off the bathrooms and kitchen, that don’t have the collection in them.
There’s a virtual tour on their site that shows off some of the house, but sadly not the kitchen and bathrooms.
Thanks, Marie!
Sarasota, Florida has a fantastic collection of Mid Century Modern homes that were designed by the “Sarasota School”. The Sarasota Architectural Foundation does a great job with routine tours, lectures, and conferences of homes and buildings designed by Paul Rudolph, Ralph Twitchell, Gene Lundy, as well as others from that era. This past November they celebrated the work of Paul Rudolph in their Mod Weekend.
https://sarasotaarchitecturalfoundation.org/sarasotaschool