Herbert and Katherine Jacobs First House
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Herbert and Katherine Jacobs First House
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| Location | 441 Toepfer Ave., Madison, Wisconsin |
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| Coordinates | 43°3′31″N 89°26′29″W / 43.05861°N 89.44139°WCoordinates: 43°3′31″N 89°26′29″W / 43.05861°N 89.44139°W |
| Built | 1937 |
| Architect | Frank Lloyd Wright |
| Architectural style | Modern Movement, Other |
| NRHP reference # | 74000073 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | July 24, 1974 |
| Designated NHL | July 31, 2003 |
Herbert and Katherine Jacobs First House, commonly referred to as Jacobs I, is a single family home located at 441 Toepfer Avenue in Madison, Wisconsin. Designed by noted American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, it was constructed in 1937 and is considered by most to be the first Usonian home. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2003.
The Jacobs House is located in a residential area southwest of downtown Madison, on the east side of Toepfer Avenue between Birch and Euclid Avenues. It is a modest single-story structure, its exterior finished in a combination of brick, vertical boarding, and glass doors, the latter opening from the rear of the house. It is covered by a flat roof and rests on a concrete pad foundation. Its interior space is just 1,500 square feet (140 m2), and has two bedrooms. The house's original heating system consisted of steam heating pipes laid in the sand base that underlies the main concrete pad. The furnace that provided the steam heat was located in a small basement space under the kitchen.
Madison newspaperman Herbert Jacobs, a Wright acquaintance, challenged the architect to design and build a home for $5,000 (equivalent to $85,116 in 2017). Wright designed an L-shaped structure with an open floor plan and two bedrooms. To economize construction costs Wright developed a 2 1⁄4-inch-thick (57 mm) plywood sandwich wall for use on this house. Rumor maintains that redirected bricks from the Johnson Wax Building ultimately helped keep final construction costs at $5,500.
The Jacobs family moved into the house after construction but quickly outgrew the two-bedroom ranch. Herbert Jacobs commissioned Wright to build a second home, Jacobs II. The family moved there in the late 1940s.
Over the following decades the house passed ownership and was exposed to modifications and maintenance techniques of variable historical value. A multi-year restoration project began in 1983, restoring the house to its 1937 appearance and updating worn and inefficient building systems.
The current owner has the home available for monthly rent and opens the house for tours through the Frank Lloyd Wright Wisconsin Heritage Tourism Program, Inc.
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