Frank Lloyd Wright Houses at the Currier Museum
The Zimmerman and Kalil Houses are the only two houses designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in the state of New Hampshire. Isadore and Lucille Zimmerman and Toufic and Mildred Kalil were husband-and-wife pairs without children who worked in medicine. Both couples wanted homes that offered respite from their busy working lives. Wright’s architecture met their needs with compact, efficient spaces and harmonious connections to the landscape. Each house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Currier Museum offers guided tours of both houses a unique opportunity to experience the evolution of Wright’s architecture in his final decade.
Photos: Sean Dungan.
Architectural Highlights
The Zimmerman House (1950) is a classic example of Wright’s Usonian Architecture, constructed of bricks, tidewater cypress, and concrete elements inside and out. The house was sited diagonally on its lot to accommodate a large boulder that already stood on the property.
The Kalil House (1955) is a rare example of Wright’s Usonian Automatic houses constructed entirely out of Wright’s unique system of coffered concrete blocks and steel reinforcement, finished on the inside with Philippine mahogany panelling and furnishings. It is the only one of the seven built Automatics that is open to the public today.
Insider's Guide
A ticket to the Frank Lloyd Wright houses also gives you admission to the main galleries of the Currier Museum where you can see our rotating exhibitions and world-class permanent collection.
Students of nineteenth century architecture will enjoy the Manchester Millyard Museum housed in the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company’s impressive mill complex. Other twentieth century attractions in New England include Louis Kahn’s library at the Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, NH, Le Corbusier’s Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts in Cambridge, MA, the Walter Gropius House Museum in Lincoln, MA, and Phillip Johnson’s Glass House in New Canaan, CT.