A Rare Frank Lloyd Wright House in Michigan’s Exclusive Usonian Community Just Hit the Market for $2.1 Million

Want to own a piece of architectural history? A rare opportunity to own a house in Frank Lloyd Wright’s planned community in Galesburg, MI, has come up.

The Samuel Eppstein Residence has hit the market for $2.1 million.

"It's in the only totally Usonian community in the world, so it's all Frank Lloyd Wright houses. There's four of them in there. It's called The Acres,” explains listing agent Dylan Tent with Signature Sotheby's International Realty. "There was originally supposed to be many more, but they ended up just being four in there."

Two other Usonion communities exist, including Usonia in New York and Parkwyn Village in Michigan.

The Eppstein house is 2,500 square feet and built with concrete blocks, typical of the style of design.

“It's just a really charming, beautiful, peaceful, serene place,” Tent says. “That’s the style of those Usonian homes is to have them blend into nature.”

Samuel and Dorothy Eppstein were both scientists at Upjohn and worked on the house with Wright himself, even making some changes to Wright’s design and casting some of the concrete blocks themselves. They completed the house in 1953, when Wright was 85.

“Homes like this are special, and it's a statement piece about who you are,” Tent says.

After falling into disrepair, the home was purchased by Marika Broere and Tony Hillebrandt in 2016, and they worked to restore it to its current glory. They added items like air conditioning while maintaining the home's architectural integrity.

“You don't want to cannibalize what's there,” Tent says. The sellers also modernized some spaces to make them larger.

“They took two of the bedrooms and combined them into one and made the master bathroom a little bit more modern as far as the shower size and things like that, which is a tasteful upgrade, but it still keeps the character of the original home,” he explains.

There are now three bedrooms and two bathrooms, and along with the living spaces, they have lots of wood and windows, designed to intermingle into the surroundings.

“The living and entertaining space is really nice. It's got these cool red concrete floors. The furniture matches perfectly,” he says, adding that most of the furniture conveys with the sale.

“It's just cozy, but it doesn't feel small. It's darker, but it feels perfectly lit.”

The home sits on 2 acres and is part of the 70-acre community Wright planned. The homes share the open land filled with mature trees, rolling hills, and open meadows.

Tent's favorite thing "is the way that it blends in with nature. It kind of feels sunken into a hill, and everywhere you look out, you have windows. Whether you're looking at the house from afar or from inside out, it's like art everywhere you look, inside and out. “

The sellers have used the home themselves about half of each year and as a short-term rental the other half, bringing in about $180,000 to $200,000 annually.

“People have come from Chile, Iceland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, all over the country and world just to stay there. It's highly profitable, there are corporate retreats and photo shoots,” Tent says. “People have cried when they've stayed there because it's so special.”

Selling this type of home carries a type of pressure, as does owning one.

“There's a certain type of customer that loves this stuff and really cares for it and wants to see it preserved,” he says. “And Frank Lloyd Wright is the most famous architect of all time, so to be able to work on something like this personally is very cool for me.”

Wright homes often sell quicky, and Tent has a message for whoever seals the deal.

“Just be a great steward for it, preserve it, care for it. Don't carve it up and change it too much. It's perfect the way that it is.”