Frank Lloyd Wright home on the market | Arts & Culture

The Tracy House is not just a dwelling, it is a piece of art, a piece of history.

Overlooking the water in Normandy Park, the Tracy House is comforting, cozy and beyond serene. And it is one of only three Washington homes built by the greatest American architect of all time – Frank Lloyd Wright. The home is currently on the market for $1,159,000.

“It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity,” said Larry Woodin, executor of the Tracy estate. “A chance to live in a work of art.”

Frank Lloyd Wright is considered one the greatest architectural pioneers of the twentieth century. During the seventy years he devoted his life to architecture, he created over 1,100 designs including government and commercial buildings, hotels, apartment towers, recreational complexes, museums, religious houses, residences, decorative pieces, furniture and lighting features, textiles, and art glass.

Wright transformed American residential design to create the “Prairie Style.” He lowered overall heights, eliminated basements and attics, and broke up the common boxlike Victorian rooms by removing unnecessary interior partitions. Wright introduced free-flowing interior spaces and walls of art glass he called “light screens.” He also gave life to the concrete block in several homes he built in Los Angeles in the 1920s.

The Tracy home illustrates many of these techniques. Built in 1955, just a few years before Wright died at age 91, the home was one of Wright’s many Usonian Automatics – designed for the middle class.

Measuring just 1150 square feet, the 3 bedroom home boasts rising and falling ceilings that make it appear larger, and an entire face made up of block columns and floor-to-ceiling glass doors which look out onto the Puget Sound and Olympic Mountains.

“Wright was a master of manipulating space,” said Woodin. “It’s magical. The space is constantly expanding and contracting so it feels alive and moving.”

Windows throughout the home let natural light flood in, whole light fixtures are tucked into bookcases, concrete blocks and hidden corners where you barely notice them.

The building is placed at an angle across the property so that with all its glass walls and curtain-free windows, it still offers excellent privacy from neighbors.

Besides glass and concrete, the home is build with redwood plywood, which is especially valuable today.

The native fir trees often welcome eagles and other native birds. It is a tranquil setting that encourages peace and contemplation.

The home’s first and only owners Bill and Elizabeth Tracy were admirers of Wright when they moved to Washington State in the early 1950’s. Bill had studied architecture and Elizabeth had taken art classes at Michigan State College. The Tracys purchased a 100 foot wide, high-bank, west-facing waterfront lot in what is today Normandy Park. They became acquainted with Wright apprentice Milton Stricker, who wrote to Wright about the property, eventually leading Wright to accept the commission.

The Tracy’s encouraged Wright to design the home in the same style as the Los Angeles concrete block homes. Being music fans, they knew the style would create excellent acoustics in their home. After Wright’s preliminary plans arrived, they asked for only very minor modifications.

The Tracys welcomed the opportunity to cast the blocks themselves – two sets of blocks each day, five days a week. In total, they cast over 1700 blocks.

The Tracy’s hired local contractor Ray Brandes, who had built his own Wright Designed house in the Seattle area a few years earlier, to build the house.

After it was completed in 1955, Bill and Elizabeth lived out their lives in the home, keeping it in excellent condition.

Currently, the Tracy House is on the market for the first time. The new owners will agree to conserve the building and will receive the complete set of archival documents, including original plans, bibliography, construction photos, plans for a later addition proposed by the Taliesin Associated architects (only the cascading pools were built), and copies of all Wright and Tracy correspondence relating to the house and a copy of the DVD of Bill and Elizabeth describing the house and its construction to visitors. Additional material including writings by Bill Tracy, family photos, and other ephemera will be available through the Tracy Family archives in Boise.

The Tracy House is also part of the Normandy Park plat so the new owners will get automatic membership to the area beach club and access to a private beachfront park, swimming pool and park.

Pictures and video cannot adequately capture the experience of being inside the Tracy House. Anyone interested in seeing the home is invited to contact Larry Woodin at ecohome@mindspring.com. He will be hosting an open house later this month. 

See our tour of The Tracy House below as well as a tour given by Bill and Elizabeth Tracy themselves.