N.H. home Wright up for sale
If you’ve ever dreamed of owning a Frank Lloyd Wright house, you need look no further than Wright’s Toufic H. Kalil House in Manchester, N.H., which will go on sale Oct. 9, just in time for the fall foliage.
Built from 1955-57, the house is named for Kalil, a Tufts University-educated doctor who commissioned it with his wife, Mildred, because they wanted a simple and functional home for two working professionals and admired the one Wright designed for their friends, Dr. Isadore Zimmerman and his wife Lucille, who lived on the same street and whose house is now part of the Currier Museum of Art.
The Kalil house is one of only seven Usonian Automatic houses, a name Wright derived from United States of America to denote a national, modular style of concrete-block houses that post-war Americans, following his designs, conceivably could build themselves at low cost, according to John Waters, preservation programs manager at the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy in Chicago.
With an asking price of $850,000, the Kalil house probably would not qualify as low cost for the average person. But considering it is one of only about 380 remaining homes that Wright designed, to a person of means, it might be considered a steal.
Located on a 0.73-acre lot in a residential area in Manchester’s North End, the house has two bedrooms, two bathrooms and 1,406 square feet of living area, said Paula Martin of Keller Williams Realty Metropolitan in Londonderry, N.H.
“This house was kind of their Shangri-La,” said Steve Kalil, the nephew of Dr. and Mrs. Kalil and the estate’s executor, who remembers going to the house as a child and hearing classical music wafting through the air.
“It’s pretty special. The decision to sell it was not easy at all. My siblings and I have taken extreme care to preserve the house in its original condition.”
The house was the fourth Usonian Automatic house Wright designed, Martin said, and arguably is in the best condition, with all of the original, Wright-designed furniture, including a large “statement” coffee table, four other tables, 10 cushioned chairs, 10 cushioned stools, four bed platforms, four bedside stands, three bed covers, three table lamps with Japanese rice-paper shade panels and a custom banquette with original pillows. It also has a single-channel hi-fi music system and built-in desks, bureaus, shelves, cabinets and closets, and it comes with the original Schumacher and Jack Lenor Larsen textiles on the cushions, pillows and bed covers.
The main new features are updated electricals, a rebuilt roof and decorative patio wall, Martin said.
The house also comes with a detached 264square-foot studio that could be used as a guest house or office, Martin said.