05/26/2026
This Frank Lloyd Wright home in Oberlin, Ohio, is a real beauty! 😍
Located at 534 Morgan St. across from the Oberlin Golf Club, the Weltzheimer/Johnson House is a Frank Lloyd Wright Usonian House commissioned by the Weltzheimer Family in 1947, and completed in 1949. The house underwent several alterations after the Weltztheimers sold the home. In 1968, Oberlin College art professor Ellen H. Johnson bought the house, and together with her students and local contractors, set about restoring the home to Wright’s original design. This required several stages of conservation. Afterwards, Professor Johnson bequeathed the house to the College, and following her death in 1992, control of the house passed to the Allen Memorial Art Museum and the College’s Art Department.
The Weltzheimer/Johnson House is an excellent example of Wright’s Usonian design. It was Wright’s first Usonian house in Ohio and is one of the few examples in the nation that are open to the public. After the Second World War, there was a demand for beautiful and affordable middle-class housing; and Wright’s Usonian architecture reflects this. The Weltzheimer/Johnson House therefore is very much a typical Usonian house, and contains the style’s notable characteristics: a flowing floor plan with distinct public/private wings; a slab floor with grid pattern and radiant heat; a flat roof and cantilevered carport; a centralized masonry fireplace; board-and-batten ceilings with “sandwich” walls; built-in furniture; and tall glass windows and doors that open to the landscape. Interestingly, the Weltzheimer/Johnson House contains elements that are unusual for the Usonian architectural style. The house’s cornice is ornamented by wooden balls, and the perforated board windows utilize a curvilinear design. Finally, redwood is used throughout the interior and exterior, as opposed to the traditional cypress. Today, it can be toured by appointment through the Allen’s website. https://amam.oberlin.edu/flw-house