Florida’s Only Frank Lloyd Wright Home Hits the Market: Ship-Shaped Design Is Listed for First Time With Asking Price of $2.1 Million

Frank Lloyd Wright's sole private home design in the state of Florida has been listed for sale for the first time in its 71-year history—with an asking price of $2.1 million.

Growing up in Wisconsin, then moving to Illinois to advance his career, and later spending winters in Arizona, the famed architect rarely focused his work on the Sunshine State.

In fact, Wright's career in Florida boiled down to just two projects: the design of 13 buildings on the Florida Southern College campus in Lakeland, which he worked on from 1938 until 1954, and the ship-shaped Lewis Spring House in Tallahassee, which was completed in 1954.

Now, after spending decades in the hands of the same family, the Spring House is up for sale, providing a very rare opportunity to own a piece of architectural history.

The home was originally commissioned by George Lewis II—who was then the president of The Lewis State Bank—and his wife, Clifton, who asked Wright to design a home in which they could raise their four children and that paid homage to their "deep-rooted love for the water," according to the listing.

However, the property needed to serve as more than a family residence. It had to be an events space where the family could host public and private functions and use it as a learning institute.

Upon George’s death in 1996, the Spring House Institute was established to honor their legacy as well as fund future preservation.

As the only home Wright built in Florida, it has wow factors, including a unique design. Built to resemble a ship, it comes complete with a prow, horizontal wood walls, and bands of windows.

Organic architecture, a design term that Wright coined, is where the structure integrates with nature. He brought this concept to life in this 2,000-square-foot house. It has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and vast windows that look out over the rural 10-acre parcel on which the home sits. The land includes streams and a natural spring.

The property is also a prime example of Wright’s hemicycle design, which is displayed in the Herbert and Katherine Jacobs II House in Madison, WI.

Other signature Wright features in the house are the built-in banquettes, Cherokee red concrete floor tiles, a floor-to-ceiling window, and walls of windows in the living room. The half-moon windows are similar to those at the Marin County Civic Center, another one of Wright’s projects, although these face downward.

Listed by Brian Proctor of Nai Talcor, the home is one of the pricier properties currently on the market in Tallahassee, where the median list price is currently $330,000.

The property offers so much more than a simple structure or a traditional family residence, Proctor told the Palm Beach Post.

"This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for the right buyer to become a steward of history while activating a new chapter for one of Florida’s most extraordinary architectural gems."

Clifton and George's daughter, Byrd Mashburn, who decided to put the home on the market, told the Post it finally seemed like "the right time" to part ways with the dwelling.

One of her cherished memories at Spring House, she shared, was during a full moon, the light in the house “changes in the shadows of the roof, on the terrace, in the yard, changes as the Earth moves.”

Guided tours help cover some of this home's maintenance expenses, an option the next owner could continue. However, whoever acquires the property should expect to invest further in restoration.

In 2014, the National Trust for Historic Preservation listed Spring House among the 11 most endangered historic places. Earlier, in 1979, the home was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.