Samuel and Dorothy Eppstein House

People: Frank Lloyd Wright

Date: 1951

City: Galesburg

Samuel and Dorothy Eppstein House, Galesburg, Michigan.  Michigan State Historic Preservation Office, photo by Todd Walsh.

Upon receiving Wright’s plans for their house, the Eppsteins reviewed them, and made several suggestions they felt made the house more livable, including enlarging the children’s bedrooms, and both enlarging the kitchen and including a window (the initial plans had no window) and a desk. Wright agreed to these suggestions, and construction soon began.

Started in 1951, it forms an “in-line” plan oriented north-south, almost perpendicular to the Pratt House. A low, cantilevered roof that extends west just north from the home’s midsection fills the view as one approaches from the street. Its exterior materials are hand-made solid and perforated concrete block and mahogany.

Much like the other homeowners in The Acres, the Eppsteins did some of the construction work themselves, constructing some of the three thousand concrete blocks required in Wright’s plans. Dorothy Eppstein recalls scrubbing the blocks with a sponge and concentrated sulfuric acid to remove lime deposits left by the Asylum Lake water. Another of her jobs included drilling holes into concrete blocks to create a rough rectangle, which would then be knocked out and used for light switches and outlets. This latter job she did while pregnant!

Like the Pratt House, the Eppstein’s dwelling was also built in several stages. In 1953 the Eppsteins moved into a finished first phase, which included living and dining rooms, a workspace, a master bedroom, and a bath. Over the following several years, the remainder of the south end was completed.