Usonia Historic District was a planned community and is now a national
historic district 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 ...
. 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 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,
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 planning of ...
" 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 ...
in 2012 as the Usonia Historic District.
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
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 d ...
''
"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
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