LAKE BLUFF — Your article (“Lawmakers should dispel the plague that threatens two historic houses,” Tempo, May 21) brought to mind another Usonian house that has been made available for the public to visit. It is the Zimmerman house in Manchester, N.H.
What I recollect about it — which may or may not be accurate — is as follows: Wright designed and built the house for Zimmerman sometime after World War II, possible in the ’50s; after the death of Zimmerman and his wife, ownership passed to the Currier Art Center of Manchester, which then spent several hundred thousand dollars restoring it. My wife and I visited the house about 10 years ago — we had to make advance reservations and were bused from the Currier to the residential neighborhood where the house stands. I recall we had to remove our street shoes and put on special footwear before entering the house. Another Wright Usonian house was built on the same block, but looks very different.
Perhaps you are aware of and knowledgeable about the Zimmerman; if not, I hope you will find this information of interest.
— Calvin W. Gage
Easements the answer?
HINSDALE — While I couldn’t agree more with Blair Kamin that Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Friedman House must be preserved (“Lawmakers should dispel the plague that threatens two historic houses,” Tempo, May 21), acquisition by the state is not the best solution.
Kamin cites Wright’s Dana-Thomas House in Springfield, which the state purchased and restored in the 1980s, as a good example of what can be done. But the attention that has been given to the restoration and maintenance of the house is very unusual and still, its annual visitation rate doesn’t come close to supporting the house.
Due to consistent underfunding, the state has been a very poor caretaker of most of its historic sites, many of which are re-creations rather than original structures. They are poorly publicized, weakly interpreted, and generally not places we can point to with pride.
Both the Farnsworth and Friedman houses could be preserved by placing conservation easements on them. A conservation easement is a legal agreement that keeps the property in private hands while protecting it from inappropriate alteration or demolition.
Easements would ensure that the houses would be preserved in perpetuity and might also provide tax benefits to the current owners.
Although there is considerable interest in the Farnsworth House, I doubt whether it will ever become a major tourist draw. Its location and the location of the Friedman house make these houses difficult to develop as tourist destinations.
But the conservation easement could require the owners to open the house to the public at least twice a year, maintaining at least limited public access. If the state must play a financial role in the preservation of these houses, let it pay to have easements placed on them.
— Jean A. Follett
The writer is a member of the Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois, a not-for-profit historic preservation advocacy group.
———-
Send letters to Tempo, Chicago Tribune, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611, or e-mail to ctc-tempo@tribune.com. Include your name, address and phone number.
