A Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house in the Garden State recently found a buyer, and the meticulously restored property is just as grand today as when the legendary architect oversaw the project.
Tucked away in the Essex county borough of Glen Ridge, the property is known as the Stuart Richardson House. Located at 63 Chestnut Hill Place, the house is set back from the road and accessed only by a private gated driveway. The home’s 1,800-square-feet features three bedrooms and a unique hexagonal floor plan that leaves all but two of the residence’s angles measuring either 60 or 120 degrees.
Two former New York City residents purchased the property in December last year for $999,999, just narrowly avoiding the “mansion tax” that New Jersey imposes on all home sales that are over $1 million.
Situated on just over half an acre of land, the home was designed by Wright in 1941 for a businessman and his wife and built a decade later in 1951 under his guidance. It utilized many of Wright’s famous “Usonian Homes” trademarks, which were built to be highly practical houses for middle-class families. Designed to be run without servants, Usonian homes commonly featured flat roofs, were usually constructed without basements or attics, and set a new style for suburban design that influenced innumerable developers.
At the Stuart Richardson House, triangle skylights puncture the flat roofline and floor-to-ceiling windows throughout the property give the illusion of the home blending into the surrounding environment, another common element of Wright’s design. Original built-in furniture and a pool are also featured at the home, which underwent a major restoration in 2006 that won an award from the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy for outstanding stewardship of a private building.
Before his death in 1959, Frank Lloyd Wright designed and built over 500 properties. His most famous work is arguably a home called Fallingwater on the Bear Run tributary outside of Pittsburgh, which is built into a waterfall and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966.
More locally, Wright designed the Guggenheim Museum in New York City and two other homes in New Jersey, the J.A. Sweeton House in Cherry Hill and the James Christie House in Bernardsville, which is currently for sale.
