National Register of Historic Places

Allen, Henry J., House

Wichita, Sedgwick County, Kansas
Listed
March 7, 1973
Type
Building
Period
Industrial
Ref No.
73000775

About this property

The Allen–Lambe House (also known as the Henry J. Allen House and the Allen House) is a Prairie Style home in Wichita, Kansas, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1915 for former Kansas Governor Henry Justin Allen and his wife, Elsie. 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. 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 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 on March 7, 1973. National Register of Historic Places listings in Sedgwick County, Kansas Storrer, William Allin (1993). The Frank Lloyd Wright Companion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-77624-8. (S.205) Media related to Allen–Lambe House at Wikimedia Commons

Location

255 N. Roosevelt St.
Wichita, Sedgwick County, Kansas
37.68976, -97.29240

Categories

ARCHITECTURE
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Nearby Historic Sites

Wilson-Boyle House
Industrial
0.1 mi
Roberts House
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0.1 mi
Jackman, C.M., House
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0.1 mi
Long, Chester I., House
Industrial
0.2 mi
Van Arsdale, W.O., House
Industrial
0.2 mi

Questions about this property

When was Allen, Henry J., House listed on the National Register?

Allen, Henry J., House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 7, 1973.

What type of historic resource is Allen, Henry J., House?

Allen, Henry J., House is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Allen, Henry J., House?

The period of significance for Allen, Henry J., House is recorded as the industrial era.

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