There goes the neighborhood

Last spring we visited Pat's sister in Alabama. Although our "overt" mission was to visit with family, our "covert" mission was to tour the Usonian which is just down the street from her house.

In 1939 Stanley and Mildred Rosenbaum of Florence commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to design their home. Here's the website.

http://www.wrightinalabama.com/

What the website doesn't show and what is difficult to understand unless one spends time there is that this one house radically changed design in this small college town, which is spitting distance from Helen Keller's homestead.

Before the Rosenbaum house, there were the normal sort of homes in that area for the times. After the Rosenbaums built their Usonian, just about every house in the neighborhood was influenced by it. Pat's own sister lives in a house with a dining/kitchen area directly derived from the Rosenbaum's. Her house was designed by the firm of Bar and Tune.

A quick walk through the neighborhood is a lesson in the evolution of the modern ranch house from the 1930's through the 70's. I am amazed SOUTHERN LIVING hasn't done a piece on it yet, because of all the wonderful neighborhoods they could highlight, this is unique in the south and almost unknown.

It's not all Tara and Twelve Oaks down here you know.