2 Frank Lloyd Wright homes for sale together in Michigan for $4.5M

Neighboring Frank Lloyd Wright homes — the Eppstein House and the Pratt House — are for sale in Kalamazoo County with a reported asking price of $4.5 million.

The original Wright-designed furniture in the homes, however, is extra.

"I refer to it as a piece of artwork that you can live in," Fred Taber of Jaqua Realtors told the Free Press, adding that "it's better than a painting" because you don't just hang it on a wall and look at it, you can go inside, walk around, sleep in it and "stay there."

Wright — an American architect, who designed more than 1,000 structures during his lifetime — aimed to create spaces that were in harmony with their natural surroundings, a philosophy he called organic architecture, but it is rare, if not unique, to have two of them next to each other.

He also was well known for having exacting standards and designing everything, including the furnishings, which, are now collectable, and at action can garner significant sums, which is why the homes listing agent said aren't included in the deal.

The homes, at 11090 and 11036 Hawthorne Dr., have reportedly been on the market for weeks, but recently gained social media attention after WZZM-TV aired a segment on the home, showing what it looked like inside, and interviewing the homes' current owners, Tony and Marika Hillebrandt.

"I think by coincidence, I found it on the internet," Tony Hillebrandt told the Grand Rapids station. Marika Hillebrandt addied, "We looked at each other and behind the real estate agent's back we pinched each other. We had no idea a normal person could own a Frank Lloyd Wright property."

Taber said that the Hillebrandts invested about $1 million to restore the homes and are renting them for from $400-nearly $600 a night. The houses, like many other Wright designed homes, are referred to by the names of their original owners.

If a new buyer rented the homes, Taber said, he or she likely could bring in as much as $500,000 annually.

One of the Frank Lloyd Wright tables in the home, which is not for sale with the home, could likely sell at auction for about $250,000. The Wisconsin-born architect is credited as a pioneer in the Prairie School movement, and the concept of the Usonian home, a word he used to describe a New World character of the American landscape.

The agent said the homes are being sold together. The listing claims that "never in the history of Frank Lloyd Wright architecture have two neighboring homes been offered, together, in one sale," and promotes the deal as a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to own a piece of architectural history."

The 2,300 square-foot Eppstein House has a low-slung profile, three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a ceiling glass façade that opens to a terrace overlooking a meadow. The 2,200 square-foot Pratt House has two bedrooms, two baths, a study and a studio.

Falling Water, which was built over a waterfall, in Pennsylvania is one of his best-known homes.

In the late 1940s, a group of scientists from the Upjohn pharmaceutical company bought a tract to build homes and asked Wright to design a subdivision. However, only five of the lots were developed, and two of those homes are now for sale.

The development, in Charleston Township, is known as the Acres, short for Galesburg Country Homes Acres, or Galesburg Country Homes, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places — a list of the structures worthy of preservation — in 2004.

Here, according to franklloydwrightsites.com, are some other Wright-designed homes in Michigan, in the order they were constructed:

1894: George Blossom Summer House, North Manitou Island

1902: Arthur Heurtley Summer Cottage, Cedarville

1902: Walter Gerts Cottage, 5392 South Shore Dr., Whitehall

1902: George Gerts Duplex, 5260 South Shore Dr., Whitehall

1910: Amberg House, 505 College Ave., Grand Rapids

1916: Ernest Vosburgh House, 46208 Crescent Rd., New Buffalo

1916: Joseph Bagley House, 47017 Lakeview, New Buffalo

1936: Abby Beecher Roberts House, County Hwy. 492, Marquette

1939: Goetsch-Winkler House, 2410 Hulett Rd., Okemos

1941: Affleck House, 925 Bloomfield Woods Court, Bloomfield Hills

1941: Carlton Wall House, 12305 Beck Rd., Plymouth

1947: Amy Alpaugh Studio, 71 North Peterson Park Rd., Northport

1948: Erling Brauner House, 2527 Arrowhead Rd., Okemos1948: David Weisblatt House, 11185 Hawthorne Dr., Galesburg

1948: Robert Winn House, 2822 Taliesin Dr., Kalamazoo

1949: Robert Levin House, 2816 Taliesin Dr., Kalamazoo

1949: James Edwards House, 2504 Arrowhead Rd., Okemos

1949: Melvyn Maxwell Smith House, 5045 Pon Valley Rd., Bloomfield Hills

1949: Ward McCartney House, 2662 Taliesin Dr., Kalamazoo

1949: Howard Anthony House, 1150 Miami Rd., Benton Harbor

1950: Curtis Meyer House, 11108 Hawthorne Dr., Galesburg

1950: Donald Schaberg House, 1155 Wrightwind Dr., Okemos

1953: Lewis Goddard House, 12221 Beck Rd., Plymouth

1955: Turkel House, 2760 W. 7 Mile Rd., Detroit

1957: Carl Schultz House, 2704 Highland Ct., St. Joseph

1959: Eric Brown House, 2806 Taliesin Dr., Kalamazoo

1959: Ina Morris Harper House, 2598 Old Lakeshore Rd., St. Joseph

Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@freepress.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: 2 Michigan homes by architect Frank Lloyd Wright hit market for $4.5M