The Allen House (also known as the Henry J. Allen House and the Allen–Lambe House) is a
Prairie Style home in
Wichita, Kansas
Wichita ( ) is the List of cities in Kansas, most populous city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County, Kansas, Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 397, ...
, designed by
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright Sr. (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed List of Frank Lloyd Wright works, more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key ...
in 1915 for former Kansas Governor
Henry Justin Allen
Henry Justin Allen (September 11, 1868 – January 17, 1950) was an American politician serving as the 21st Governor of Kansas (1919–1923) and U.S. Senator from Kansas (1929–1930).
Life and career
Allen was born in Pittsfield Township, ...
and his wife, Elsie.
Description and history
It was one of Frank Lloyd Wright's last Prairie Houses.
The design influence of the prairie and Japanese architecture (Wright was working on the
Imperial Hotel in Japan at the time) is apparent on both the exterior and interior.
The building's exterior features a horizontal grey Carthage marble water table as a transitional element between the ground and the house, white horizontal brick joints and flush ocher head joints. The roof was designed with an emphasis on horizontal lines and covered with
Ludowici tiles featuring a unique Japanese-inspired starting course.
The house's interior continued the use of brick in a blend of ochre and buff colors, with joints gilded horizontally. The living and dining rooms wrap around a sunken garden filled with
lilies and
koi fish
, or more specifically , are colored varieties of carp (''Cyprinus'' sp.) that are kept for decorative purposes in outdoor koi ponds or water gardens.
Koi is an informal name for the colored variants of carp kept for ornamental purposes. The ...
. A terrace paved in
quarry tile extends in from the outside, and helps to blend the two spaces.
The building was designed with a central vacuuming unit, an alarm system and gas fireplace logs.
Another innovation was the first firewall in a residential home. The bricks contain iron, giving it a
rust
Rust is an iron oxide, a usually reddish-brown oxide formed by the reaction of iron and oxygen in the catalytic presence of water or air moisture. Rust consists of hydrous iron(III) oxides (Fe2O3·nH2O) and iron(III) oxide-hydroxide (FeO(OH) ...
color.
It is currently run by the Allen House Foundation as a museum under the stewardship of the Wichita Center for the Arts. The house was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
on March 7, 1973.
See also
*
List of Frank Lloyd Wright works
*
References
* (S.205)
External links
*
Allen House Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Allen-Lambe House
Houses completed in 1917
Frank Lloyd Wright buildings
Historic house museums in Kansas
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Kansas
Museums in Wichita, Kansas
Prairie School architecture in Kansas
Houses in Sedgwick County, Kansas
National Register of Historic Places in Wichita, Kansas