Happy Birthday to Frank Lloyd Wright! Did you know the architect of Falling Water, Taliesin, and the Guggenheim Museum, designed two homes in Maryland? And both houses display the diversity and range in Wright’s design style and architectural creativity.
JOSEPH EUCHTMAN HOUSE
PIKESVILLE, BALTIMORE COUNTY
The Joseph Euchtman House is one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s trademark Usonian-style homes. Typically, these homes were L-shaped, surrounding a patio, constructed out of native materials, with flat roofs, floor-to-ceiling windows, and a carport. Designed for middle-income families, these homes were “practical dwellings that used fine architecture to achieve both privacy and affordability.” Pleasantville, New York is home to a neighborhood of these homes while the Joseph Euchtman House, built in 1939, is the one and only Wright Usonian-style home in Maryland. This particular home was linear, as opposed to L-shaped, with all the rooms in a row. The entrance is concealed from the street, creating privacy for the residents. It has two bedrooms and one-and-a-half baths, and like other Usonian homes, heating coils under the floor which warm the house, eliminating the need for radiators. The home features an open-concept dining and living space, “creating the flowing interior space for which Wright was known.”
ROBERT LLEWELLYN WRIGHT HOUSE
BETHESDA, MONTGOMERY COUNTY
Illustration of the Robert Llewellyn Wright House. Image from Home Advisor.
Frank Lloyd Wright designed this home in 1953 for his sixth son, Robert Llewellyn Wright, and his family. The home is one of twelve Wright houses, designed between 1941 and 1957, in the “hemicycle” style, using concentric and intersecting elements of a circle. This stylistic change came late in Wright’s career, and is distinctly different from earlier Usonian designs. The main house is formed by two intersecting arcs, resulting in an almond-shape structure. It is situated on a sloping hilltop, and the south side of the home features large casement windows overlooking the ravine and Cabin John Creek. A turret intersects the north side of the house, containing a workspace on the first level, and a bathroom on the second. The home also features a semicircular terrace and two second-floor balconies. Much of the interior furniture was designed by Wright himself. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986, and as of 2010, the home belonged to Wright’s grandson, Thomas Wright, and his wife.
This post was written by Maggie Pelta-Pauls, a Waxter Intern with Preservation Maryland, with the assistance of former intern, Kyle Fisher. Learn more about our interns and The Waxter Memorial Internship program here: presmd.org/waxter.