If you were to approach the Zimmerman House in Manchester, NH from behind, through the leafy screen of landscaping that hugs the hill into which it is nestled, this is what you’d see: a sleek, low-slung brick and cedar house sandwiched between grass and green.
The only New England residence designed by Frank Lloyd Wright which is open to the public, the Zimmerman House is owned and maintained by Manchester’s Currier Museum of Art, which offers daily reservation-only tours of the house and grounds. As in the Museum proper, photography is disallowed inside the Zimmerman House…but our guide encouraged us to burn our camera batteries outside.
From the front, the Zimmerman House looks unremarkable at first glance, a ranch-style house amongst New England Victorians and Capes. With its small, concrete-block windows, the front of the Zimmerman House looks (to my eye) almost like a garage, an impression that was corroborated when our tour headed down the street to drive by (and ogle) the privately owned Kalil House, a Wright-designed residence build entirely of concrete blocks. If the front of the Zimmerman House looks a bit like a garage, the front of the Kalil House looks a lot like a bunker.
Although I’m not sure anything would change my first impression of the Kalil House, things at the Zimmerman started to look up when we went inside and then out back to admire from both perspectives the window-rich rear facade.
It was only after I’d seen the Zimmerman House’s backside that I warmed up to the place, recognizing and admiring its long-hanging, cantilevered eaves as being quintessential Wright.
Build into a sloping lawn, the Zimmerman House is low-slung, nearly sunk into earth. Viewed from inside the living room, the ground is appropriately at ground level; from the rear guest room, though, the ground outside is eye-level. As we stood under the front eaves waiting to enter the Zimmerman House, our guide explained that Frank Lloyd Wright was a short man who typically designed houses with his own height in mind. Since Isidore Zimmerman was taller than Wright, the Zimmerman House has higher eaves and ceilings than a typical Wright-designed residence…but I still got the distinct impression of entering an ultra-funky, long and lean hobbit-hole: a house that hugs the ground.
To my eye, the outside of the Zimmerman House is all about its eaves, jutting and hanging in odd-angled, cantilevered glory.
Wright’s Usonian houses do not feature garages; instead, the Zimmerman has an impractically shallow carport that would have sheltered the hoods of the Zimmermans’ black and white Thunderbirds. Whatever the Zimmerman carport lacks in terms of automotive utility, it compensates with its lean and sleek style, its long, low-pitched roof topping a narrow opening that allowed some intriguing peekaboo pictures.
Here, from the backyard, you can see through the carport our Museum shuttle parked out front…
And here from inside the carport (now used as a reception area where we all donned disposable hospital booties before entering the premises), you can see the back yard at eye level…
And here, in my favorite carport peekaboo, you can see the brick wall of the rear guest room and one of Wright’s famous beveled-glass corner windows. Look ma: no window frame!
I’m not sure I would like to live in the Zimmerman House: even as a short, single person, I think I’d feel cramped and crowded there. But the Zimmermans themselves loved the house that Frank built, living there for 36 years (and opening their doors to architecturally minded strangers) before bequeathing it to the Currier. Walking through a house still stocked with its previous owners’ knickknacks, clothing, and belongings is a bit like visiting a haunted house: you get a feel for the Zimmermans’ taste as much as you get an appreciation for Wright’s designing eye. Although I didn’t hear any ghostly whispers emanating from any of those long and low eaves, it did feel a bit like I was eavesdropping.
Aug 10, 2005 at 8:28 am
This was a lovely post, Lorianne. Thanks for taking us with you on your visit. Loved the frameless corner window, but it was your picture of that gorgeous undereave that blew me away.
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Aug 10, 2005 at 8:51 am
Yes, I fell in love with those eaves. Because they’re so long & because of how Wright’s apprentice designed the livingroom windows, which open on a vertical angle, the Zimmermans didn’t have to worry about rain coming through the windows!
I forgot to mention that in that vertical shot of the carport eaves, you can see at the end of the driveway another member of my tour taking a picture of the house’s mailbox, which was also Wright-designed! π
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Aug 10, 2005 at 11:09 am
Eaves-dropping. Groan.
Puns. How eave-il.
Kevin
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Aug 10, 2005 at 3:33 pm
Yes, I have to admit loving really bad puns. I’m somewhat infamous for it.
“Eave-il” isn’t one I’d thought of, though. Bravo! π
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Aug 10, 2005 at 8:52 pm
This is a beautiful post! Amazing!! Gorgeous photos! Tomorrow I will return to appreciate much more! Your Blog is THE BEST!
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Aug 10, 2005 at 10:12 pm
What a beautiful location – and your photos are great too. I like the simplicity, wood and glass.
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Aug 10, 2005 at 11:48 pm
What gorgeous pictures! The green of that lawn just gets to me, it looks too lush to be real. Mr. Wright was a genius, this is an incredible place.
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Aug 11, 2005 at 6:01 am
As a Floridian, I envy those Broad Eaves,(shade). I’d love to sit in the shade of them with all my accumulated human junk. Of course you can’t do that with an F.L.W. home.
We have a Wright designed college some where here in FLA.
I understand it’s worth the visit.
Wright was a brilliant Architect, but he often mismatched his plans with his residents. Pehaps Guggenheim demanded what she needed, and got a worthy construct while others asked for the prestige but had little to say about how they wanted to live. (could you tell FLW that the carport had to be wider?)
Thanks for your generous Photos and essay.
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Aug 11, 2005 at 8:28 am
Yum yum,yum! Great photos. There is something about FLW architecture that calls me internally and unconsciously. I have visited some of his Florida sites, have yet to see Falling Water. I will get there before I die. Thanks for the tour. Stay safe on your trip.
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Aug 12, 2005 at 3:54 pm
Wow, Sonia: thanks for the enthusiastic praise. You just made my day! π
It’s funny, Bonita, since “simplicity” isn’t a word I would have associated with Frank Lloyd Wright…but you’re exactly right. For all FLW’s modern ideas & vision, the basic design & aethetics are very minimalistic.
Jude, I’m sure the Museum pays a lot of money to keep the grass so lovely! I’m usually not impressed by manicured lawns, but in this case the greenery really works with the architecture.
Bill, our guide actually remarked that in the winter time, the living room gets beastly hot from the sun beaming through those rear windows. Although the eaves are wide, the low-angled sun still pours through when the trees are leafless (and there are no blinds!)
He also said that the price of construction went over budget because Mrs. Zimmerman insisted upon various changes along the way. FLW wasn’t present for construction, but his apprentice (whose name escapes me…) was, so the apprentice redesigned various things that Mrs. Z. didn’t like. This being said, the Zimmermans apparently loved their house: they wanted something VERY DIFFERENT from the homes around them, and they got just that. To prove how forward-thinking the Zimmermans were, in fact, they commissioned Wright to design their house after reading his autobiography but NOT seeing pictures or blueprints of any homes he’d designed!
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Aug 12, 2005 at 3:59 pm
Carol, I would love to see Falling Water in person…but in the meantime, I’m grateful that the Zimmerman is in my home state, and so well preserved!
Our tour guide was something like a FLW groupie, having traveled the country to see various sites he’d designed. Of the hundred-some homes that exist, this fellow said he’d seen all but about a dozen of them…and he was young enough that I’m sure he’ll see them all eventually!
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Aug 14, 2005 at 8:15 pm
your blog is really sweet. i love it. i’ve just linked you. take care.
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