Eighty two years after it was built, a house designed by a top apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright took a ride on a trailer to its new home on the campus of the University of Evansville.
Planned to take four hours, the move actually took just a little over one hour, with police shutting down intersections and exits to the Lloyd Expressway to get the structure under the bridge at Weinbach Avenue.
The house was built by Evansville College alum William Wesley Peters for his cousin James Margedant. It's one of the first examples of what is known as the Usonian style- simple, small and functional.
UE associate professor of art history Heidi Strobel says there is no direct connection between this house and the current Tiny House movement.“You know I don’t think a lot of people in the Tiny House movement are looking back to the 1930’s, but there are some similarities.
Small square footage, space-saving devices, things like tables that pull down, they had bunk beds for the kids in their bedrooms, and people didn’t have as much stuff. You know, how can I keep from cranking my air conditioner down to 65 (degrees Fahrenheit), how can I open up doors. These types of details, although people aren’t looking right now -not yet- back to this type of building, there are lots of similarities to these beautiful tiny buildings today.”
You can see the house in its new home, off Weinbach Avenue on the UE campus. It will eventually be used for instruction and be open for tours.
