Indiana Frank Lloyd Wright house is new national landmark
A small and not-that-old but nevertheless spectacular house in West Lafayette is Indiana's latest National Historic Landmark.
The home is a 2,200-square-foot structure designed in 1950 by Frank Lloyd Wright. His clients were a young Purdue University professor and his wife, John and Catherine Christian. John Christian is 97 and still lives in the house, which is referred to as Samara.
Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, in announcing Samara's designation this week, called the house "a remarkably complete Usonian design, incorporating more than 40 Wrightian design elements, including character-defining Usonian features such as modular design, indoor-outdoor connections, slab floor construction, flat roofs and open-plan public spaces conducive to simple living for average middle-class families."
Usonian was a term Wright used to describe his modest, mid-century houses that were characterized by open floor plans and flat roofs, often with dramatic overhangs. They were within the price range of the middle class.
Samara is Indiana's 40th National Historic Landmark. Indianapolis has eight, including three that were built as private homes — the James Whitcomb Riley house in Lockerbie, the Benjamin Harrison home on Delaware Street and J.K. Lilly's Oldfields on the grounds of the Indianapolis Museum of Art.
National Historic Landmark is a step up from the National Register of Historic Places (Samara has been on that list since 1992), but it's still a mostly honorary designation. The program recognizes places that the Department of the Interior think "possess exceptional value and quality in illustrating or interpreting the heritage of the United States."
In addition to Samara, four other structures were given landmark status by Jewell: Lake Hotel at Yellowstone National Park; California Powder Works Bridge, Santa Cruz County, Calif.; McGregor Memorial Conference Center, Detroit; and Brookline Reservoir of the Cochituate Aqueduct, Brookline, Mass.
John Christian and his daughter, Linda Davis, created the John E. Christian Family Memorial Trust Inc., a nonprofit that will own the house and be eligible for grants. The trust's board is led by Marsh Davis, president of Indiana Landmarks, the state's largest preservation group.
Samara, 1301 Woodland Ave., West Lafayette, is open for tours, by appointment annually from April to November. Visits can be scheduled by emailing info@samara-house.com or by calling (765) 409-5522.
Contact Star reporter Will Higgins at (317) 444-6043. Follow him on Twitter @WillRHiggins.