SCIO TOWNSHIP, MI - At the end of a dead-end drive just west of Ann Arbor stands a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright you've probably never heard of.
The "Whiteford-Haddock House," at 3935 Holden Drive in Scio Township, is left off most lists of Michigan buildings designed by the iconic architect. Its existence has not been highly publicized -- until it was listed for sale for $1.2 million on May 25.
Wright initially designed the house for a retired Wisconsin teacher in 1938, but she didn't end up building it.
Four decades later, the late Fred Haddock, an astrophysicist who taught at the University of Michigan, and his wife-at-the-time, Priscilla Whiteford, worked with Taliesin Associated Architects - the firm founded by Wright - to carry out Wright's plans for the house on 10 acres bordering Honey Creek in Ann Arbor.
The Whiteford-Haddock House is one of just a dozen of Wright's designs constructed after his death in 1959.
Now, Deborah Fredericks, who was married to Haddock at the time of his death in 2009, is building a new house in the area. For all the allure of living in one of Wright's unique designs, the 1,300-square-foot wood-paneled house requires vigilant upkeep.
"Because it's on 10 acres and this great location, I think (the next owner) is going to be somebody who wants to use the rest of the acreage for a home - I think they are going to build another home, and they'll use this here as an office or a guest house," said Realtor JoAnn Barrett.
In keeping with Wright's Usonian style, the main living space in the Whiteford-Haddock House is on a single floor, with floor-to-ceiling windows in the front corner of the house and master bedroom to provide views of the patios and gardens and give a sense of merging the indoors and outdoors.
The front door opens into the living and dining area that adjoins the kitchen, which was remodeled in 2006. The master suite, on the back of the house, is separated by an accordion door. Shallow brick fireplaces stretching up to the 25-foot-tall ceiling stand beside the kitchen as well as in the master bedroom.
A second bathroom, bedroom, office and brick tower open off a hallway on the side of the house. The 30-foot tower in the center of the house is lined with bookshelves - accessible by ladder - and a spiral staircase descends to the basement.
The walls in the living and dining areas are lined with horizontal redwood panels, and most of the floors are Wright's signature rust-colored concrete. Wright's recommended radiant heat system still works.
Plenty of built-in shelves fill the house and a built-in bench runs along one wall in the living and dining area. Narrow, horizontal windows are adorned with wooden cutouts, and ornate lights made of stacks of wooden boxes hang in some rooms.
The irregular roofline slopes over an attached carport on the side of the house and leaves space for skylights where the angles of the ceiling intersect.
Fredericks and Haddock were careful to maintain the initial intent of the house's design only making modest modifications over the years. Fredericks saved any original fixtures that were removed so the next owners could restore the space to the original version if they want.
Charles Montooth, an apprentice of Wright's who worked with Haddock to construct the house, called it a "one-of-a-kind small masterpiece for a northern climate," in a 1988 letter to Haddock affirming the authenticity of Wright's design.