A little less than seven months after listing for $7.995 million, an iconic Frank Lloyd Wright house is headed to auction. The property, known as Westhope, was designed by Wright in the late 1920s for his cousin Richard Lloyd Jones, a publisher for the Tulsa Tribune. “You start feeling its significance from the moment you see it. But when you walk in, you immediately sense the brilliance of Wright’s work,” Rob Allen of Sage Sotheby’s International Realty, the home’s listing agent, tells AD.
At 10,400 square feet, the five-bedroom property is among the architect’s largest residential projects, and it’s one of just three in Oklahoma. It was included on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. “It’s a true masterpiece,” Allen adds.
Located in Tulsa’s Greater Oakview neighborhood, the home is largely defined by an expansive façade, which makes use of Wright’s innovative “textile block” system (a building method that involves stacking patterned concrete blocks together to build a structure’s walls). Westhope is the only Wright project outside of California to use this style; the most famous example of which is likely the Ennis House in Los Angeles. Aside from the blocks, the façade also features thousands of glass panes that bring the outdoor scenery inside.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Stuart Price, a commercial real-estate investor, is the seller. “Before the present owner purchased the property, the home had fallen into a state of neglect,” Allen says. “Many of the thousands of window panes had fogged and their casements rusted. Some of the textile blocks had chipped and had mildew growing up [their] sides. The pool was empty, brown, and unusable.” Other signs of disrepair included damaged drywall, chipped paint, damaged interior concrete, and old glued carpet. Originally intending to move into the house himself, Price undertook an extensive restoration process to return to home as close to Wright’s original vision as possible. However, after restoration work, he opted to stay in his current home.
Listing images show the house staged with a collection of Wright-style furniture, like in the dining room where chairs similar to Wright’s Robie 1 stand, as well as more contemporary midcentury-inspired pieces. However, several original bookcases and woodburning fireplaces can also be found throughout the home. Since completing the renovation, Price said that local organizations like the Tulsa Ballet have held fundraisers at the property. The home has also been used for private events, including a prewedding dinner for One Tree Hill actress and activist Sophia Bush.
“The vertical and horizontal lines of the textile blocks and windows create unique perspectives of size and depth throughout the home,” Allen says. “In the heart of the home is the Lantern Room, where floor-to-ceiling columns of glass let natural light pour in.” At night, this space glows like the object from which it gets its name.
The auction opens on November 30 through Sotheby’s Concierge Auctions with starting bids expected between $1.5 and $3.25 million. The no-reserve auction will culminate live at Sotheby’s auction house on December 14. “Going to auction is a way for the seller to expose the property to a much broader pool of potential buyers,” Chad Roffers, CEO of Concierge Auctions, says. “It provides a greater level of certainty and finality in the sale, ensuring that the property will be sold by a [certain date] for the best price the market will allow.”
Among its unique design and size, the home’s most notable claim to fame is a frequently quoted anecdote that took place within the walls. During a bad Tulsa rainstorm, water started leaking through the roof, a common occurrence among Wright homes. Lloyd Jones reportedly called his cousin, saying, “Damn it, Frank, it’s leaking on my desk!” to which Frank Lloyd Wright calmly replied “Richard, why don’t you move your desk?” Georgia Lloyd Jones, Richard’s wife, had a more poetic take on the situation. “This is what we get for leaving a work of art out in the rain,” she said.
