A report on this morning’s National Public Radio announced a once-in-a-deathtime real estate deal that’s just too cool not to mention here, connoisseurs of Frank Lloyd Wright‘s architecturally unique Ennis House and William Castle-style ballyhoo that we are.
Fans of Castle’s masterpiece House on Haunted Hill will immediately recognize the imposing concrete structure from its starring role as the titular pseudo-haunted manse, although only the exteriors were actually filmed at the Ennis for the 1959 Allied Artists production.
Built in 1924, the house has fallen in disrepair in recent decades, leaving the current owners, The Ennis House Foundation, with little choice but to put it up for sale. The asking price, should you have some loose change behind your divan, is a cool $15 million, which, all things considered, is a steal. Imagine what Alamo Drafthouse owners Tim and Karrie League could do with a weekend getaway like this…no, seriously, imagine.
From the Ennis House website:
In Architectural Digest (October, 1979) Thomas Heinz, editor of the Frank Lloyd Wright Newsletter, wrote:“The Ennis House is one of the first residences constructed from concrete block. Wright transforms cold industrial concrete to a warm decorative material used as a frame for interior features like windows and fireplaces as well as columns. His sixteen inch modular blocks with intriguing geometric repeats invite tactile exploration. The art glass windows and doors, reminiscent of examples from the earlier prairie period, here achieve greater color suddenly as they graduate in intensity from darker at the top to lighter at the bottom. The wisteria motif mosaic above the living room fireplace is the extant example of the only four art glass mosaics Wright ever designed. “The metal work based on Mayan imagery is not of Wright’s design, and may have been included at Mr. Ennis’ request, yet from the very large iron grill at the main entrance to such minute details as light switches and lock plates, there is a unity of conception and materials that complements the entire structure.”
This article appears in July 24 • 2009.