Weltzheimer/Johnson House

The Weltzheimer/Johnson House, 1948
Architect: Frank Lloyd Wright
Photograph: Dirk Bakker
The First Usonian Home In Ohio

View Larger Map

The public entrance to the house is located at
534 Morgan Street.

Weltzheimer/Johnson House
Living Space, circa Ellen Johnson era

The Weltzheimer/Johnson House holds public open house hours on the First and Third Sundays of each month, from April through November. Hours are 12pm until 5pm. Presentations begin on the hour
(12pm, 1pm, 2pm, 3pm, and 4pm).

**Please note: The W/J House will be CLOSED on Sunday, September 1 in observance of Labor Day.

Admission is $5 per adult, and is payable at the house.
Advance registration is not required, except for groups of 10 or more.

Parking is available on the south side of Morgan Street (the golf course side). Don't worry about the "No Parking" signs - city services are familiar with the house!

Click here for general directions to the Allen Memorial Art Museum. Click here to download directions to the handicapped accessible entrance to the FLW House.

Guided tours on days other than scheduled open house dates are open only to groups of 10 or more, including school groups. Please contact the Education Office with inquiries.

Read entries related to the house at the AMAM Blog!

Click here to download the K-12 Teacher Resource
Packet on our FLW House.

The W/J House does allow visitor photography of both the interior and exterior of the building. More photos of the house are available on the AMAM's Flickr page.

At this time, the house is not available for use as a rental facility.

For further information, please contact Jason Trimmer, AMAM Curator of Education, at (440) 775-8671, or send us an email.

Check the calendar page for the next open house date.

Closed Major Holidays - New Year's Day, Easter, Independence Day, and Christmas.

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.