Last summer we seized the opportunity to take a tour of one of the few Frank Lloyd Wright House open to the public in New England, while we were passing through Manchester, New Hampshire. The Zimmermann House is another Usonian House of FLW´s more or less affordable designer homes for middle class Americans. It is also one of the few FLW Houses to be incorporated into the collection of a classical art museum, belonging to the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester (use link above for their website). Meeting point for a tour is the museum foyer, where, after an introduction, we boarded a bus that took us on a ten minute ride to the house. The low horizontal lines of the house, it´s overhanging eaves and cantilevers, the natural materials and the wooded suburban setting immediately strike a resemblance to the Pope-Leighey House in Virginia. As it was a typical FLW project, everything was designed and determined by him, from the idea of using locally available materials (supporting his idea of Organic Architecture), to the garden setting and even the mailbox down the driveway. Of course the interior also has his very unique handwriting, as he allowed inhabitants only minor changes. The furniture looks familiar and the view is almost closed on the front side and wide open to the beautiful wooded scene in the back, using small slit style ventilation window shafts and floor to ceiling panes respectively. Even though everything looked so familiar and there were no big surprises, being inside a FLW House is a unique experience, thrilling time and again. Maybe it´s because of the unchanged atmosphere, the smell and look that hasn´t changed for the past sixty years. It´s as if the ghost of FLW is wandering about in every house of his, hushing past all the visitors that keep coming as long as the buildings are going to be there.

There is a model of the house and surroundings

at the Currier Museum.

And here´s the real thing

View from carport to the backyard

The front

The back lot

Looking at the cantilevered lower part of the "T"

As it is not allowed to take pictures inside the Zimmermann House,

I´ve taken this pic of paintings showing the interior.

They hang in the CurrierMuseum

Just a few houses down the same road is privately owned Kalil House.

It is one his interesting concrete homes.

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