Herman T. Mossberg Residence
| Herman T. Mossberg Residence | |
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| General information | |
| Type | House |
| Architectural style | Usonian |
| Location | South Bend, Indiana |
| Coordinates | 41°38′37″N 86°13′38″W / 41.64351°N 86.227272°WCoordinates: 41°38′37″N 86°13′38″W / 41.64351°N 86.227272°W |
| Construction started | 1948 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Frank Lloyd Wright |
Herman T. Mossberg Residence is a house designed by the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. It was built for Herman T. Mossberg and his wife Gertrude in 1948 in South Bend, Indiana, and remains in private hands today. It is one of two Wright residences in South Bend, the other being the K. C. DeRhodes House.
Mr. Mossberg grew up in Chicago and it was his youthful appreciation of Wright's Robie House that instilled an idea that, if possible, he would like to have a house like that one day. The Mossbergs settled in South Bend, where Mr. Mossberg became a successful lithography press printer, Mossberg & Company Inc. remains in business today, operated by second and third generations of the family. When Wright's career had its resurgence in the late 1930s, with broad press coverage of such works as Fallingwater and the Johnson Wax Building, the Mossbergs wrote to Mr. Wright asking if he would recommend one of his former students to design a house for them in the manner of Mr. Wright. Wright responded, "Why have an imitation when you can have the original?" and invited them to visit him at Taliesin (studio) in Spring Green, Wisconsin.
This, they did, on a cold day when Wright and Wes Peters had been to Kalamazoo, to see the site of the Parkwyn Village homes Wright would be designing there. Wright was so cold and tired from the trip that Peters had to carry him into the house from the car. After dinner, as was the custom at Taliesin, there was a musical performance. The Wrights and the Mossbergs were seated together as one of the apprentices played Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. When the music concluded, Wright turned to Gertrude Mossberg and said, "Ah, that man Beethoven! The greatest genius the world has known! Save my own!" Mrs. Mossberg whispered to her husband, "What have we gotten ourselves in for?" Nonetheless, the Mossbergs gave Wright the commission to design their home.
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