Manchester … The Zimmerman House!

When I realised we would be driving past a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright on the way to the airport and that it was one of the few open to the public, we just had to fit it in and I booked places on their popular tour months ago.

Wright believed in designing structures that were in harmony with humanity and the environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture. He was the pioneer of what came to be called the Prairie School with its horizontal lines, flat roofs with broad eaves and integration into the landscape. Later he scaled these ideas down into more modest low cost housing he called Usonian homes. It was just such a home he designed for Dr Isadore and Lucille Zimmerman in 1952.

During the tour we heard how the Zimmermans approached Wright, the design process and the features of the house including the interior design, furnishings and the planting for the garden. Wright insisted that nothing should be changed after completion and this together with the fact that the Zimmerman’s left their house to the Currier Museum is why the house can be seen today almost as it was originally built.

The cypress wood used throughout, the exposed brickwork, snug size and warm colours make this a very cosy house considering its open plan design, but apparently the seats are not particularly comfortable and the chimney is smokey so not all is perfect!

Chris had a last treat too as the Currier Museum had a couple of Hoppers on display, including this one called The Bootleggers.

Well our trip has ticked all the boxes! One of the highlights had to be the whale watching as we felt so lucky to see so many whale antics. As for the leaf peeping, we thought we saw the best of the colour in Rangeley and the White Mountains as we’ve caught the Lakes a little early. But everyone here has something to say about it … we need more frost, it’s been a bit warm this year, the reds are starting to pop, it might have reached peak, seen better reds, must catch it before it rains, not quite so vibrant this year! Well we were impressed! With nothing to compare it with, we thought we saw fabulous foliage but it does look best in the sunshine and a couple more sunny days would have been nice.

Chris always likes a count up so here we go – 1570 miles driven and 80 miles walked in 20 days across 6 states where we have seen 14 lighthouses and 14 waterfalls, crossed 14 covered bridges and attained 7 summits but not all on foot … fuelled by quite a few bagels!

Anyway, it has got a bit chilly here now and we woke to a flurry of snow today…