Usonia Historic District was a planned community and is now a national

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...

located in Town of Mount Pleasant, adjacent to the village of Pleasantville,

Westchester County, New York Westchester County is located in the U.S. state of New York. It is the seventh most populous county in the State of New York and the most populous north of New York City. According to the 2020 United States Census, the county had a population o ...

. In 1945, a rural tract was purchased by a cooperative of young couples from New York City, who were able to enlist

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...

to build his

Broadacre City Broadacre City was an urban or suburban development concept proposed by Frank Lloyd Wright throughout most of his lifetime. He presented the idea in his book ''The Disappearing City'' in 1932. A few years later he unveiled a very detailed twelve- ...

concept. Wright decided where each house should be placed. Wright designed three homes himself and approved

architectural plan In architecture and building engineering, a floor plan is a technical drawing to scale, showing a view from above, of the relationships between rooms, spaces, traffic patterns, and other physical features at one level of a structure. Dimensio ...

s of the other 44, which were designed by such architects as

Paul Schweikher Robert Paul Schweikher (1903–1997) was a mid-century modern architect from Denver, Colorado. Biography Paul Schweikher was born in Denver, Colorado in 1903 to a family of musicians. He originally trained at the University of Colorado for a ...

, Theodore Dixon Bower,

Ulrich Franzen Ulrich Joseph Franzen (January 15, 1921 – October 6, 2012) was a German-born American architect known for his "fortresslike" buildings and Brutalist style.Vitello, Paul (14 October 2012)Ulrich Franzen, Designer of Brutalist Buildings, Dies at 91 ...

, Kaneji Domoto, Aaron Resnick and David Henken – an engineer and Wright apprentice. ''Note:'' This includes an
''Accompanying photographs''
/ref> The layout of the neighborhood was planned by Wright in a circular manner, preserving most of the original trees and "encouraging the flow of the land". The balance of the homes were decreed to be in the modern "organic" style ordained by Wright. The community was named "

Usonia Usonia () is a word that was used by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright to refer to the United States in general (in preference to ''America''), and more specifically to his vision for the landscape of the country, including the urban plannin ...

" in homage to Wright, whose ideas on the way Americans should live together guided their plan. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 2012 as the Usonia Historic District. The historic district encompasses 43 contributing buildings, 1 contributing site, and 3 contributing structures. The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Usonian homes in Pleasantville are: File:Sol Friedman House 01.jpg, Sol Friedman House File:Edward Serlin House 05.jpg,

Edward Serlin House Edward Serlin House was completed in 1949, and is the second of three designs by Frank Lloyd Wright for ''Usonia'', planned as a cooperative community starting in the late 1940s. This is now known as the Usonia Historic District and is located i ...

File:Roland Reisley House 05.jpg, Roland Reisley House

Notable residents

* Aaron Resnick * Mel Smilow *

Martin Scheiner Martin Lane Scheiner (September 1, 1922 – January 21, 1992) was an American inventor of electronics devices for medical purposes. He founded Electronics for Medicine in 1950, and served as president and research director until selling it to Hon ...

Ann McGovern Ann McGovern Scheiner (née Weinberger; May 25, 1930 – August 8, 2015) was an American writer of more than 55 children's books, selling over 30 million copies. She may be best known for her adaptation of ''Stone Soup'', as well as ''Too Much N ...

Roger Kahn Roger Kahn (October 31, 1927 – February 6, 2020) was an American author, best known for his 1972 baseball book '' The Boys of Summer''. Biography Roger Kahn was born in Brooklyn, New York, on October 31, 1927, to Olga (''née'' Rockow) and ...

References

External links

"Usonia Community Remembers Its Past"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''
"Wright Find Recalls His Influence On A Community"
''The New York Times''

''The New York Times''

''The New York Times''
Pleasantville has the Wright Stuff
Retro Info!
Photos on Flickr
* Frank Lloyd Wright buildings Houses in Westchester County, New York Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state) Modernist architecture in New York (state) Historic districts in Westchester County, New York National Register of Historic Places in Westchester County, New York Mount Pleasant, New York {{NewYork-struct-stub