Frank Lloyd Wright’s Allen House

On our recent trip to Wichita, Kansas, my husband drove me over to Allen House, a large, brick, prairie school-style house designed and completed by famous architect, Frank Lloyd Wright. It is a beautiful place. The Allen House is so named for its original owners, Henry and Elsie Allen, who commissioned Wright to design it in 1916. Completed in 1918, the house with its clear horizontal lines was the last that Wright did in this style. Eventually owned by two other families, it is now conserved and managed by the Allen House Foundation.

After seeing the house, my husband and I decided we would try to tour it, but when we went online to buy tickets, we could locate only one ticket. Even though he knew much more about Frank Lloyd Wright than I (or maybe because of it), he insisted I go. When I arrived at the house, I was not sure what to expect as I had opted for the three-hour interior tour. I enjoy house tours, but this rather pricy three-hour version was new to me. There were shorter, alternate, less expensive tours, but those tours did not allow picture-taking, and I wanted pictures! My husband made other plans for those three hours, so off I went. (He came back after three hours with a cool-looking pink polo shirt, so there was that.)

Meanwhile, I was the first to arrive for this tour and a friendly, cheerful woman in the gift shop/ticket office greeted me. Later I learned that this gift shop had been the house’s original attached garage, something that was unusual because homeowners feared automobiles would start a fire that could spread throughout theI houses. The Allens insisted on an attached garage, so Wright had a thick layer of concrete laid between the garage and the house’s upstairs to serve as a firewall.

At any rate, I knew a little about Frank Lloyd Wright–but only a little. When the docent and other four people on the tour arrived, I quickly realized I was out of my league. One fellow “tourist” and her husband from Arizona were avid fans of both Frank Lloyd Wright and the Chicago Cubs. They spent as much time as they could touring Wright structures and studying his architecture while following their baseball team on the side. The other two were mother and daughter. The mother, from California, was visiting her daughter who held a degree in some kind of design and engineering and had recently moved to Wichita to complete coursework at the Allen House, so, of course, the daughter knew a considerable amount of information about Wright. Her mother knew much less but not as little as I, and the docent, understandably, liked to talk to the more informed three. Fortunately, I enjoy listening to knowledgeable people, so I felt I was in for a treat. And I was right.

First of all, the house is, as I have already said, the last of Wright’s prairie-style or prairie-school-style houses. It is quite large and is built to connect with nature (lots of windows and indoor/outdoor spaces) and with Midwestern life.

When we went inside, we walked first into the home’s foyer, or welcoming room. I’m not certain what Wright and the Allens actually called the room, but it sported the first of the home’s five fireplaces. I felt a great sense of weight and solidness of structure when I entered. In fact, everything felt heavy, almost massive. Except, perhaps, for Wright’s geometric-designed stain glass windows in green, gold, and blue, nothing was dainty. Considerable stone, cement, brick, and visual squares met guests.

Another beautiful room is the dining room: more wood, stained glass, squares, and a fireplace.

Many consider the living room of the Allen House to be a masterpiece. The room has high ceilings, exquisite woodwork and numerous windows. Wright designed and commissioned most of the furniture in the living room (and in much of the house). Frank Lloyd Wright was a designer to his core, occasionally even designing clothes for homeowners to wear when entertaining in his designed homes. Some pictures of the living room follow. Please realize it is difficult to capture the scale of the living room with snapshots.

These are some of the main rooms of the house. I believe there were six bedrooms, four bathrooms, and a library/study upstairs (perhaps one or two other rooms). One half bath was downstairs, as was a kitchen, butler’s pantry, servants’ quarters, and a back stair for servants. From the living room, glass doors open onto a large terrace, garden area, and teahouse.

Thanks for hanging with me!