A historic Ogden Dunes, Indiana, home designed by the renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright sold this spring for more than $1 million.
A new owner acquired the Armstrong House, sometimes known as the Armstrong Dune House, that was built in the lakefront town in 1939. Wright, the pioneer of the Prairie School and Usonian styles of architecture, has been heralded as the greatest American architect of all time by the American Institute of Architects. Wright has a storied history with Mason City and designed the Historic Park Inn, the only functioning Wright-designed hotel.
Oak Park, Illinois, resident Brian Bobek bought the home for $1.02 million in April, according to property records.
The 3,696-square-foot home is nestled on landscaped, wooded lots on a sloping sand dune. It stands two stories tall with four bedrooms, four bathrooms and a retro carport. The brick home has two brick fireplaces, a sauna, a large recreational room, lots of natural lighting and a screened-in porch that showcases the surrounding wooded environment.
People are also reading…
"This special home has been carefully maintained," the Chicago-based Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy said. "Original Wright features include classics like board and batten woodwork, built-in bookshelves, and clerestory windows."
One of about 1,000 buildings Wright designed, the Usonian home was on the market for months and ended up selling for less than the initial asking price of $1.2 million. The house that was marketed as a "one-of-a-kind masterpiece" and "not only a home but a work of art" was sold as is.
The house was built for the family of Andrew Armstrong, an advertising director in Chicago. It was the first home Wright designed in the Chicago metro area since the 1920s, according to the Ogden Dunes Historical Society. It featured an organic design tailored to the sloping site, a multi-level layout with a hidden entrance tucked away behind the carport, and the obtuse angles for which Wright was known.
The world-renowned architect, who designed the Guggenheim Museum in New York City and whose Fallingwater is widely considered one of the greatest buildings ever designed, visited the home's construction site in Ogden Dunes in 1940 and was pleased with the topography of the land, according to the Ogden Dunes Sandpiper newsletter.
The original owners sold the house to an assistant superintendent of a local steel mill in 1942 and it continued to change hands several times over the years. It was expanded in the 1960s and 1970s with the addition of a bedroom wing and added space in the kitchen and dining room. A screened porch overlooking the rear dune also was added.