Frieda and Henry J. Neils House

The Frieda and Henry J. Neils House is a house in Minneapolis designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The home was designed for Henry J. Neils, a stone and architectural materials distributor, and his wife Frieda. It is unusual for a Wright-designed home both in the type of stone used as well as in its aluminum window framing.^[3]

Frieda and Henry J. Neils House
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
The Neils House viewed from the south
Show map of Minnesota Show map of the United States
Location	2801 Burnham Boulevard, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Coordinates	44°57′29″N 93°19′4″W
Built	1951[1]
Architect	Frank Lloyd Wright, Lyle Halverson
Architectural style	Usonian
NRHP reference No.	04000531[2]
Added to NRHP	May 26, 2004

The Neils approached Wright in 1949 to help build a new home on property adjacent to their existing home, overlooking Cedar Lake.^[1] The home was designed through close collaboration between the architect and the Neils who were knowledgeable about architecture.^[1] It was Wright's only home to use marble walls: the small marble blocks were left over from other marble projects, and Henry Neil, who was a trustee of a marble company, was able to acquire them at a good price and convince Wright to use the material; however, the color of the completed walls did not satisfy either Wright or the Neils, and some of the blocks were later stained.^[1] Unlike Wright's normal use of wooden window frames, the home used aluminum frames made by Neils' company.^[1]

The house was designed in Wright's post-World War II Usonian architecture, with the goal of "affordable, beautiful housing for a democratic America." The L-shaped, one-story home's floor plan features a dominant living room and social and spatial separation into "active" and "quiet" areas.^[4] The short side of the L consists of the "active" portion, centering on a living room with 17-foot (5.2 m)-high vaulted ceiling and views of Cedar Lake; the "quiet" portion is the long side ending in a three-car carport and has bedrooms as well as a gallery leading to a hidden main entrance.^[1]

Located on 2801 Burnham Boulevard, the home is visible from public streets but remains privately owned by members of the Neils family.^[1]

See also

• List of Frank Lloyd Wright works

References

1. Millett, Larry (2007). AIA Guide to the Twin Cities: The Essential Source on the Architecture of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Minnesota Historical Society Press. pp. 283–84. ISBN 0-87351-540-4.
2. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 15, 2006.
3. "Wright in Minnesota". Retrieved 2007-03-28.
4. "Minnesota Preservation Planner" (PDF). Minnesota Historical Society. January–February 2005. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-09-29. Retrieved 2007-03-28.

• Storrer, William Allin. The Frank Lloyd Wright Companion. University Of Chicago Press, 2006, ISBN 0-226-77621-2 (S.314)