The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville has purchased a Frank
Lloyd Wright house and plans to soon move it from New Jersey to Northwest Arkansas, a museum spokeswoman said Wednesday.
Crystal Bridges has purchased “a rare Frank Lloyd Wright Usonian house, known as the Bachman Wilson House,” which has sat along the Millstone River in Somerset County, N.J., since being built in 1954, said Diane Carroll, a spokeswoman for Crystal Bridges.
The museum plans to disassemble the structure and move it to the museum’s grounds in time to be opened up to the public in 2015, Carroll said.
The house has sustained significant damage after being “encroached upon by the river and surrounding landscape over the decades,” Carroll said through a statement.
Crystal Bridges’ statement does not mention how much the museum paid for the house, although several listing sites put the asking price for the house at $1.5 million.
The house will be available for study and tours after it opens on the grounds of Crystal Bridges, Carroll said.
Abraham Wilson and Gloria Bachman commissioned Wright to design their home in the 1950s, according to Crystal Bridges. Gloria's brother, Marvin Bachman, was an apprentice in the Frank Lloyd Wright Taliesin Fellowship.
