The Michigan Wright buildings include two "colonies" of four homes each found in the Kalamazoo area, four in Okemos, several in the Detroit area, several along the Lake Michigan shore (including a cluster of seven north of Muskegon), and a few scattered elsewhere in the state.
Useful books for study of Frank Lloyd Wright's Michigan work include:
This web page is part of the All-Wright
Site - Frank Lloyd Wright Building Guide, which contains
geographically organized listings of Wright's works in many
states.
You can also check out the Wright buildings in nearby states:
Arthur Heurtley Summer Cottage (S.075),
Marquette Island, Michigan, 1902.
Mr. Wright did not actually design this house, but he did do a major
remodeling on it. It is located on a Lake Huron island off the southeast
shore of the Upper Peninsula. (The Pitkin cottage
in Canada is located in islands to the east of the Upper Peninsula).
George Gerts House, "Bridge Cottage" (S.077),
Whitehall, Michigan, 1902.
This is one of the several cottages on the eastern shore of White
Lake (a small lake just off Lake Michigan). A brook flows under part
of this house, which predates Fallingwater
by 33 years.
Mrs. Thomas H. Gale Cottage and Duplicates,
Whitehall, Michigan, 1905.
There are three of these board and batten cottages, identical except
for their placement on their lots.
Meyer May House (S.148), Grand Rapids, Michigan,
1909
This modest-sized but ornate and meticulously restored Prairie
house is open to the public for free tours (see the Frank Lloyd Wright
Tourist Guide for more information).
It was recently
restored (from 1985 to 1987), and is maintained and made available to
the public for tours (and special events) by the Steelcase corporation.
Please also see the
"Heritage Hill
Tour Page" for information about touring the neighborhood this house
is located in, which includes another Wright house
and other homes from the Victorian era.
J. H. Amberg House, Grand Rapids, Michigan
1909
This home is located very near to the Meyer May house, in the historic
Heritage Hill neighborhood.
The design was
started by Wright and finished by Marion Mahony.
Ernest Vosburgh House (S.197), Grand
Beach, Michigan, 1916.
The first of the three Grand Beach houses, this one is the only
one of the three that has not been radically altered. This Prairie
house is built
on a cruciform plan, and the front part of the house has largely
glass exterior walls. A similar plan (but Usonian instead of Prairie)
was developed 21 years later in New York as the Ben Rebhuhn house.
Joseph J. Bagley House (S.198), Grand
Beach, Michigan, 1916.
This house on Lake Michigan sits on a knoll, and has one central
two-story part with one-story wings. It has been altered from the
original Wright design.
W. S. Carr House (S.199), Grand Beach,
Michigan, 1916.
This cottage located on bluffs above Lake Michigan has been
winterized and otherwise extensively altered.
Abby Beecher Roberts House, "Deertrack"
(S.236),
Marquette, Michigan, 1936.
This house in the woods outside of Marquette is the only one on
the mainland of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and is located
hundreds of miles from other Frank Lloyd Wright buildings. This
house has a northeast-facing living room that is glazed on three
sides. The client was the mother-in-law of one of Mr. Wright's
students.
Goetsch-Winkler House (S.269), Okemos, Michigan, 1940. This home is considered by some to be among the best of the "Usonian" designs. It is located just west of the middle of Okemos, a community near Michigan State University.
Gregor Affleck House (S.274), Bloomfield Hills,
Michigan, 1940.
This house is open to the public, in association with a college.
Information and information
and directions can be found at the Michigan section of
the Frank Lloyd Wright Tourist Guide.
Mr. Affleck
has been quoted as saying:
"There are two things wrong with a Frank Lloyd Wright
house. People will hardly
let you get one built and will hardly let you live in it when it's done."
Carlton David Wall House, "Snowflake" (S.281), Plymouth, Michigan, 1941.
Melvyn Maxwell Smith House (S.287),
Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, 1946
Amy Alpaugh House (S.293), Northport, Michigan,
1947.
One of the houses in the northern part of Michigan that is located well
away from other Wright houses, this residence sits on a hill not far
from the northern point of the Leelanau Peninsula. This house was built
the same year as the Bulbulian house
in Rochester, Minnesota. The house has a feature found in many of
the homes in the latter third of Mr. Wright's career: a wing (in this house,
a studio, in others, often a living room) with mostly glass walls on
three sides and a single-plane roof that slants downward toward the
central axis of the house. This feature is called a "shed" or "butterfly"
roof. The next eight designs by Frank Lloyd Wright were also in Michigan
(the two Kalamazoo-area developments).
David Weisblat House (S.294), Galesburg, Michigan, 1948.
Eric Pratt House (S.295), Galesburg, Michigan, 1948.
Samuel Eppstein House (S.296), Galesburg, Michigan, 1948
Robert Levin House (S.298), Kalamazoo,
Michigan, 1948.
This home was the first built of the four in the Parkwyn Village
project. It is constructed of textile block and cypress.
Ward McCartney House (S.299), Kalamazoo,
Michigan, 1949.
This Parkwyn Village house is built on a diamond design.
Eric Brown House (S.300), Kalamazoo, Michigan,
1949.
This Parkwyn Village house was built with mahogany and textile block.
Robert D. Winn House
(S.301), Kalamazoo,
Michigan, 1950.
One of the houses in the Parkwyn Village "colony", this is the only
one that is two-story. The house is constructed of textile block,
and features a hemicircular balcony.
Erling P. Brauner House (S.312), Okemos,
Michigan, 1948.
This textile-block house is located across from the Edwards house. It
is one of four Wright homes in Okemos, a Lansing suburb located
to the east of Michigan State University.
James Edwards House (S.313), Okemos, Michigan,
1949.
Located across from the Brauner house (the entry just above this one),
the Edwards House is not very visible from the road. This red brick and
red Tidewater cypress house was altered by an wing added by the
Taliesin Associated
Architects and later with woodwork refinishing.
Howard Anthony House (S.315), Benton
Harbor, Michigan, 1949.
This home was constructed of cypress,
stone, and cedar shingles. It overlooks the St. Joseph River, and has
a plan based on diamond-pattern modules. The client it was built for
was the developer of the electronic "Heathkit" sold by the Heath Company which
was founded by Ed Heath. "Since Anthony was an avid bird watcher,
Wright provided a balcony and windows overlooking the ravine" - Kathryn
Bishop Eckert, The Buildings of Michigan.
Donald Schaberg House (S.328), Okemos, Michigan, 1950.
Ina Morris Harper House (S.329), St. Joseph,
Michigan, 1950.
This L-plan house is located across the street from Lake Michigan.
It is constructed of sand-mold brick and cypress.
William Palmer House (S.332), Ann Arbor,
Michigan, 1950.
This house grows from the crest of a hill. It is a multilevel structure
built of sand-cast perforated brick and cypress wood. The house is topped
by wood-shingled, copper-flashed roofing.
Roy Wetmore Service Station Remodeling,
Ferndale, Michigan, 1951.
All that was done from this plan for a service station and auto showroom
was some wood-trim remodeling. Please see the All-Wright Site's
"Frank Lloyd
Wright Gas Station Page" for more on Mr. Wright and gas stations. The
Wright work in is located in the Wetmore auto alignment shop, and can
be seen on the left through the garage window that is to the right of
the customer lobby entrance.
Lewis Goddard House (S.264), Plymouth,
Michigan, 1953.
This wood and brick house is built on the L-plan, and is located
adjacent to "Snowflake"
Dorothy H. Turkel House (S.388), Detroit,
Michigan, 1955.
This is a Usonian Automatic house inside the city of Detroit. This
is the only confirmed Wright building inside Detroit, but there may
possibly be (or have been) two others. A non-Wright residence with
some Prairie styling is located just to the west of it.
Carl Schultz House (S.426), St Joseph,
Michigan, 1957.
This house cantilevers out over a St. Joseph River ravine, and is built with
pavement brick and mahogany trim.
Comments, corrections, and additions are welcome: please go to the
mail page to send e-mail.
Click here to return to the Frank Lloyd
Wright Building Guide main
page, or click here to return to the
All-Wright Site main page.