The Weltzheimer/Johnson House at Oberlin College is a Frank Lloyd Wright Usonian House that sits on a 3 acre lot several blocks from campus. Designed in 1948 and completed in 1950, it is the first Usonian house in Ohio and one of the few in the nation open to the public.
The Weltzheimer/Johnson House stands as another expression of Wright's answer to the demand for beautiful and affordable middle-class homes in the post WWII America. Pairing innovation with basic owner-builder construction materials and techniques, the concepts of organic architecture evolved into these Usonian characteristics: a flowing floor plan with distinct public and private wings; concrete, grid patterned, slab floor with radiant heat; flat roof and cantilevered carport; masonry fireplace mass; board and batten walls with simple built-in furniture; and tall glass walls and doors opening to the landscape.
The Weltzheimer/Johnson House uses brick masonry and redwood and has several distinctive features, including the hundreds of stained croquet balls forming the roof dentil ornamentation whose circular motif is echoed in the shadow panel screens of the clerestory and the interior brick columns that separate the workspace from the living room.
The Weltzheimer family lived in the house until 1963 when the property was sold to developers and "remodeling" efforts scarred the space. However, in 1968, Art History Professor Ellen H. Johnson purchased the home and began the restoration process. In 1992 at her death, the house was given to Oberlin College to serve as a guesthouse for the Art Department and the Allen Memorial Art Museum. The house is now open to the public for tours and programs.
Tour Info. The Weltzheimer/Johnson House holds a public 'Open House' on the first and third Sundays of each month, from 12pm until 5pm. Admission is $5.00 per person. Opportunities for in-depth seminar study and family learning sessions are scheduled periodically throughout the year.
For further information, program dates or to schedule a tour, call the WJ House at 440.775.5999 or email Palli
Davis Holubar
(wjhouse@oberlin.edu).
Closed major holidays -New Year's Day, Easter, Independence Day, and Christmas.
Download the W/J House Summer 2008 Schedule
here.
Click here for general directions to the Allen Memorial Art Museum
Click here to go to the interactive campus map (on the Oberlin College web site).
(AMAM is in the Tappan Square section)
Click here for driving directions from beyond the county (on the Oberlin College web site).
Literature:
Frank Lloyd Wright at Oberlin: The Story of the Welzheimer/Johnson House, Allen Memorial Art Museum Bulletin 49, no. 1 (1995), is available at the Weltzheimer/Johnson house during tour hours.
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