Gerald B. and Beverley Tonkens House
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Gerald B. and Beverley Tonkens House
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As viewed from the street
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| Location | Cincinnati, Ohio |
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| Coordinates | 39°11′44.47″N 84°24′53.45″W / 39.1956861°N 84.4148472°WCoordinates: 39°11′44.47″N 84°24′53.45″W / 39.1956861°N 84.4148472°W |
| Built | 1954 |
| Architect | Frank Lloyd Wright |
| Architectural style | Modern Movement and Other |
| NRHP Reference # | 91001414 |
| Added to NRHP | October 3, 1991 |
The Gerald B. and Beverley Tonkens House, also known as the Tonkens House, is a single story private residence, designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1954. The house was commissioned by Gerald B. Tonkens (an automobile dealer) and his first wife Rosalie. It is located in Amberley Village, a village in Hamilton County, Ohio.
Wright designed the home in the Usonian Automatic style. It is considered to be one of the finest and most intact examples of Usonian Automatic architecture ever produced and was designated a National Historic Landmark and listed in the National Register of Historic Places on October 3, 1991.
The Tonkens House is a single story, three bedroom, two bathroom private residence, designed in the Usonian Automatic style. The house is situated on a partially developed 3.54 acre property in Amberley Village, Ohio and measures some 2,100 square feet. An early 20th century guest cottage also occupies the property, a remnant of its earlier use as a farm.
The Usonian Automatic style was Frank Lloyd Wright's final architectural period, and is based on a modular design system that employed interlocking, precast concrete blocks. It was first conceived by Wright in the wake of the Depression in 1936 and later developed as a response to a lack of low cost housing and rising construction costs following World War Two.
Like many of Wright's Usonian style buildings, the floor plan of the Tonkens House mimics the shape of a polliwog. The tail of the polliwog is represented by the bedroom wing, with each bedroom opening off into a long, narrow hallway. The hallway leads into 'the body' of the house, which consists of a bright and expansive living room or Great Room, alongside a kitchen and foyer. The configuration allowed for additional rooms to be added to the bedroom wing in the future. The 'Great Room' was designed as a large, warm and welcoming space, a room in which the family and their guests could gather throughout the day and night.
The master bedroom contains an en suite and private study, which opens off to a private patio. Ceilings in the bedroom wing are low (7.5 feet) and gilded in 18 karat gold leaf. Those in the Great Room, kitchen and foyer are high (10.5 feet and 13.5 feet respectively) and unembellished. The Great Room contains a cantilevered fireplace and east-facing wall of floor-to-ceiling windows and French doors that open onto a lanai at the rear of the house. Philippine mahogany was used for interior paneling and furniture. Piano hinges (hinges extending from the top to the bottom of a door) were used for all doors in the house, including closet doors.
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