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.
pam kueber says
Note to file: Williams Residence, New Orleans.
Joe Felice says
Note to file: Just put it out there and information will abound! I think it would be interesting to locate all the original Alcoa show homes that were built, and find out how many of them have been kept up or restored. (I believe there were 27, if my memory is correct.) I located the one in Denver, and drove by it. It is tenant occupied, and not well-maintained at all. In fact, it looked like a dump, which is sad on many levels, but especially considering it is in the Lakewood Country Club area, surrounded by high-priced, custom-built homes. I thought, if I had the money, I’d offer to purchase the home from the owner and restore it to its mid-century grandeur, the way Alcoa built it.
pam kueber says
Yes, no KP, but we get Pecky Cypress – even better!
pam kueber says
note to file, mies van der rohe mccormick house via TammyCA
Piper McKinney says
Hi Pam,
I love your website. I wanted to mention that the Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville Arkansas has purchased a Frank Lloyd Wright Usonian home, but I’m not sure if it’s on display yet.
pam kueber says
Thanks! We’ll take a look at adding this when we do the next update. Thanks!
Julie says
Yes it is on display! Free tour tickets everyday. It’s called the Bachman-Wilson house. It’s a self tour with handheld audio but I believe they also have special guided tours.
pam kueber says
Note to file: Cimarron Heritage Center house http://www.midcenturystyle.net/index.php/2014/02/mid-century-time-capsule-oklahoma-panhandle/
linda says
This is a great one and a lot of fun. When we were there in 2009, we were the only ones there. We just happened upon it and it’s massive iron dinosaur. The house was wonderful, and one of the highlights of our month long trip from Memphis to Oregon. It is definitely worth a stop. The history and the old pictures of the architect and the house’s story are intriguing. I took a ton of pictures, and really enjoyed it.
linda says
Here’s a new link. The one in the post doesn’t work.
http://www.chcmuseumok.com/
pam kueber says
Note to file: http://www.polymathpark.com/
Polymath Park FLWs
pam kueber says
Note to file: Penfield House http://www.penfieldhouse.com/wrights_last_house.htm
Alicia says
The Walter Gropius house in Lincoln Ma is an excellent find also
Alicia says
Oops I just realized you have it. I love your feeds and you!
Allison Titman says
The Greenbelt Museum would be a great addition to the list. Greenbelt was one of three green towns constructed as New Deal projects, to provide an example of modern town planning as well as affordable housing for workers. The Museum is one of the original homes built in 1937, and is near the original school (now the community center), movie theater, and other public buildings.
pam kueber says
Thanks, we will check it out!
Max van Balgooy says
Great list! I didn’t realize there were this many, but I have a couple more suggestions:
1950s House at the Shelburne Museum near Burlington, Vermont
Sam Maloof Home and Studio in Rancho Cucamonga, California
J. Robert Oppenheimer House in Los Alamos, New Mexico (may not have opened yet as a house museum)
pam kueber says
1950s house at Shelburne — gone
We’ll check out the others, though. Thanks!