A Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in the Kalamazoo area that its owners restored after years of neglect is on the market for $2.1 million.
The Samuel and Dorothy Eppstein residence, completed in 1953, is one of four Wright-designed Usonian homes in The Acres
, a roughly 70-acre cooperative residential community in Charleston Township, just east of Galesburg, that was planned by the famed architect.The home’s long horizontal lines, broad roof overhangs and expanses of glass are characteristic of Wright’s Usonian architecture and help connect the house to its wooded setting.
The one-story home has three bedrooms, two bathrooms and an estimated 2,500 square feet of finished living space. It sits on about two acres.
Owners Marika Broere and Tony Hillebrandt
bought the house in 2016 after Hillebrandt came across it online while searching for a modest vacation property.
The couple, originally from the Netherlands and living in Ontario at the time, weren’t looking for a Wright house, or even a home in Michigan.
Despite its poor condition, Broere said in an email that they were immediately drawn to its light, windows and relationship to the surrounding landscape.
“It doesn’t feel as though a house was simply placed on a piece of land,” Broere said. “It feels embedded in nature and part of the hill itself.”
She compared buying the house to unexpectedly having the opportunity to own a Rembrandt.
Restoring a Wright house
The house had been unoccupied and largely neglected for 18 years when the couple bought it, Broere said. They began an extensive restoration that lasted more than 18 months.
“We didn’t move walls around or try to make a 1950s Usonian house look like a contemporary luxury home,” she said.
The work included replacing the roof, restoring concrete blocks and mahogany woodwork, upgrading electrical and plumbing systems, addressing drainage problems and adding climate control. A swimming pool added after the house was built was removed because it wasn’t part of Wright’s original design.
“We weren’t simply buying a house,” she said. “We felt we had somehow been given the opportunity to become custodians of a work of art.”
Much of the original design remains, including the floor plan, mahogany woodwork, built-ins, concrete floors and radiant floor heating.
More than 3,000 concrete blocks were originally made for the house, largely by Samuel and Dorothy Eppstein themselves, according to Broere.
“The original owners literally helped manufacture the house with their own hands,” she said.
Part of Wright’s The Acres
The Acres was conceived in the 1940s by a group of scientists associated with the Upjohn Co., including Samuel and Dorothy Eppstein, who wanted a cooperative residential community and enlisted Wright to design its master plan.
Instead of a conventional subdivision, Wright designed circular homesites with land between them held in common, leaving much of the roughly 70 acres natural.
Four Wright-designed homes were built: the Eppstein, Meyer, Pratt and Weisblat houses. A fifth home was designed by Wright protégé Francis Willsey.
The Acres was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.
“In winter, the architecture becomes much more visible through the trees,” Broere said. “In summer, the house almost disappears into the greenery.”
Sharing the house
Broere and Hillebrandt also began offering the house as a short-term rental, initially hoping to recoup some of their restoration costs.
They found strong demand from people wanting to experience living in a Wright house.
“For a few days, they aren’t museum visitors,” Broere said. “They inhabit the architecture.”
Ready to pass it on
After a decade, Broere and Hillebrandt have decided to sell as they simplify their lives. Broere said they divide their time between Canada and France, and traveling among their homes has become increasingly demanding.
“There comes a point when you have to recognize that stewardship also means knowing when it is time to pass something on,” Broere said.
The house at 11090 Hawthorne Drive in Charleston Township is listed by Dylan Tent of Signature Sotheby’s International Realty.
Broere said she hopes its next owner will continue to preserve Wright’s design.
“Perhaps ‘ownership’ isn’t quite the right word for a house like this,” she said. “Tony and I happened to become its custodians for ten years, and eventually somebody else will take our place.”
Brendel Clark writes about real estate and other topics for the Detroit Free Press. Contact her at bclark@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan Frank Lloyd Wright home extensively restored lists for $2.1M
