The Rosenbaum House and Museum

Dublin Core

Title

The Rosenbaum House and Museum

Subject

Rosenbaum House and Museum; Frank Lloyd Wright; Usonian Architecture; Florence, AL; Lauderdale County, AL

Description

601 Riverview, Florence, Alabama

The Rosenbaum House is the only Frank Lloyd Wright designed house in Alabama.

Louis and Anna Rosenbaum's wedding gift to their son, Stanley, and his wife, Mildred (known as "Mimi") was a two acre lot with a view of the Tennessee River and $7,500 to build a house. The Rosenbaums, who did not see themselves living in a "Colonial style" house, had read about Frank Lloyd Wright. After discussing their vision for a home with Aaron Green, they commissioned a Usonian style house (one of twenty-six pre World War II Usonian style houses designed by Wright).

The house was built in an L-shape, using natural materials, cypress wood, brick and glass. It features low-rising steel cantilevered roofs on the house and carport. The original plan called for the house to be 1540 square feet. By the time the house was completed, with overruns, the house cost approximately $14,000.

After the births of four sons in six years, the Rosenbaums approached Wright about adding an extension to the house. He agreed, designing a dorm space for the children. a larger kitchen for the family, a guest room, and a second carport, adding 1048 (a second L shape) to the house. The costs for the additions exceeded $40,000.

The house was added to the National Historic Register of Houses in 1978.

After Stanley's death in 1978, Mildred devoted her energies to giving tours of the house and preserving Frank Lloyd Wright buildings. Mildred lived in the house until 1999 (longer than any other Wright clients) when she sold the house to the city of Florence with the intention that it would be turned into a museum.

After extensive restoration and renovation, the house was opened to the public as a museum in 2003.

John Sargeant describes the house as "the purest example of Usonian style."

Creator

Pam Kingsbury, University of North Alabama

Source

Broach, Barbara Kimberlin, Frank Lloyd Wright's Rosenbaum House: The Birth and Rebirth of an American Treasure. San Francisco; Pomegranate, 2006.

Rosenbaum, Alvin, Usonia: Frank Lloyd Wright's Design for America. Washington, D.C.: Preservation Press, National Trust for Historic Preservation, 1993.

Publisher

Alabama Cultural Resource Survey

Date

1939 to the present

Contributor

Pam Kingsbury, University of North Alabama

Rights

Photograph Courtesy of Archives at Collier Library, University of North Alabama, Florence, Alabama

Type

Still Image and Text