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.
Ellie says
Thanks for the list of historic homes open to the public, I am going to tour the Zimmerman house in Manchester NH this Thursday.
Seriously? I am going to be inside a Frank Lloyd Wright house.
Shirley Smith says
The Ruth Paine House Museum mentioned on your site in November 2013 (https://retrorenovation.com/2013/11/19/ruth-paine-house-lee-harvey-oswald/). You can find more about the museum and book a tour at http://cityofirving.org/498/Ruth-Paine-House-Museum
Kara says
BTW – the Phillip Johnson Glass House link is wrong. Should be: http://theglasshouse.org/.
🙂
Kara
pam kueber says
hmmm, I wonder if it was changed over the past two years. I’m pretty sure we checked everything — this was, as I said, an epic endeavor. Thanks for the tip, we’ll make the correction when we next do an update.
Kara says
We brought our two daughters (12 and 17 at the time) to Fallingwater in PA a few years back and it was like a religious pilgrimage for us. We were so anxious to show them just why we love our FLW influenced MCM house here in Massachusetts. And showing them Fallingwater? I think they finally “got it”. Great list! Great reminder to get out there and look around. While in LA, we visited the Schindler House – and had many other “a-HA” moments. I’m going to make a list for our family for this summer.
THANK YOU!
pam kueber says
You’re welcome!
Jason says
This is awesome. While I am sure there are others and arguments on any, thank you for compiling this. I need to look around my area (Carolinas) for more, but the effort to do this for your readers is appreciated.
Cassandra Z says
They Meyer May house in Grand Rapids, MI was built by FLW in 1909 and restored in 1986 by Steelcase, which still owns it. It’s open to the public on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays and admission is free. It’s nestled in an historic district of Victorian and early 20th century homes and definitely stands out. They have a very nice website, http://meyermayhouse.steelcase.com/. There is also a house two streets up on the corner of College & Logan that was designed by FLW but built by Marion Mahony; it’s not open to the public, but certainly still worth a look.
pam kueber says
Thanks, Cassandra!
MelRC says
In Springfield, Ohio: http://www.westcotthouse.org/#load
Jeff says
The House on the Rock in Spring Green, WI should more the qualify for this list and an attraction everyone should experience just for the sheer over the top oddness of it. There is a Wright tie-in (sort of) with mid-century elements and it’s 1950’s build date should put it on the list. http://www.thehouseontherock.com/ (Spring the extra bucks for the full tour, it’s definitely worth it, plan to spend the whole day)
pam kueber says
woah, i just saw that in some movie, i forget which….
Kit says
Not only is the home fab, the surroundings are gorgeous and the drive beautiful in any direction you travel for miles!
Virginia Faust says
Lustrons on Tour in October in MI:
http://www.docomomo-us.org/tour_day_2014_michigan
pam kueber says
note to file per sarah on fb — https://www.facebook.com/pages/LC-Daisy-Bates-Museum/259984158836