There’s something about a Frank Lloyd Wright house, no matter where it is. Although unique, the architect’s philosophies and creativity are all over them while still acknowledging the needs and desires of his clients. For those who appreciate his aesthetic, visiting the homes he has designed is like getting insight into Wright’s mind. Here’s writer Betsa Marsh’s guide to some properties that might not be the first that come to mind when deciding which Frank Lloyd Wright houses to visit.

Save this article to Pinterest to help you plan your visits to these lesser-known Frank Lloyd Wright houses. Photos by Betsa Marsh, except top right courtesy Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism. Graphic by Real Food Traveler.

As much as I love travel, I have to acknowledge the sadness, too. My jeweler has declared that my travel charm bracelet, clankingly full of tiny treasures from dozens of countries, can take no more.

I can’t add another coin to the darling little square five-cent piece from Curaçao or the oversized, pre-Euro franc of France. Nothing to the loon of Canada, the ewer of the UAE or the harp of Ireland.

So what in the world am I going to collect?

Married to a Wrightian, a devotee of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, we’re constantly on the trail of his buildings and artifacts. Why don’t I expand my virtual collection from the man whose works are now honored as UNESCO World Heritage Sites?

Of course, we’ve seen all the big-ticket items, Taliesins East and West in Wisconsin and Arizona. We’ve marveled to hear the cascade at Fallingwater, tucked deep into the Pennsylvania woods. And we’ve worshiped at the mothership, the Wright Home and Studio and Robie House in Oak Park, Illinois.

I’ve even spent a spooky night sleeping alone in one of Wright’s Usonian houses in western Pennsylvania.

So it’s time to go second-tier and delve into sites that don’t trip off the tongue. There’s always something new to discover from Wright’s long, prolific career.

Here are some of our most recent gems. No jeweler required.

Hungry for more? Follow the Frank Lloyd Wright Trail in Wisconsin.

An early adopter in Ohio

Burton Westcott was a Gilded Age businessman, managing his father’s farm implement company in Springfield, Ohio. He branched out into the budding automobile industry with his namesake car. Like many prosperous men before him, Westcott wanted to memorialize his success in stone at a prestigious address. He and his wife Orpha chose a commanding corner lot and looked around for an architect on the move.

It was 1906 and Wright was just building his name when Westcott chose him to bring his new vision to Springfield. The entrepreneur didn’t want any Victorian geegaws hanging off his house. He wanted a little bit of that Prairie Style that Frank Lloyd Wright was spinning in Oak Park outside Chicago.

The Westcott House has survived a hard life, being chopped into apartments in the 1940s, then later left to crumble. A fierce group of volunteers saved the structure and a tireless campaign fueled more than four years of restoration. The red tile roof alone cost $500,000.

Today, the Westcott stands as a primer of the hallmarks we associate with Wright’s style. There’s the low, compressed entryway that opens up into a higher-ceilinged entertainment space. Large fireplaces and built-in bookcases. Stained glass wherever he can catch the light.

Wright also designed the furniture for the Westcott House, so you’ll find all the oak and 90-degree chair backs that he insisted upon in Oak Park. Nobody slouched around Wright’s dinner tables.

For authenticity, the walls are painted the accurate dark greens and browns of the original house plan. Unless the sun is blazing through the windows, the interiors can be dark and dreary–even dangerous if you’re not paying attention on the steep staircases.

So does it look like a comfy modern home? Not to most Americans. But is it fun to see the early ideas that became Wright’s signatures? Absolutely.

The Westcott House library has the early features that will become Wright’s hallmarks: oak furnishings, stained and beveled glass, and compressed ceilings that open up to larger living areas. Betsa Marsh photo.

Mid-Century Modern on the move

There’s so much remarkable artwork at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art that it’s easy to miss a Wright home within its 120 acres of Ozark woods. But true Wrightians always have the master in their GPS, and here it takes them up a little rise, through the trees to a landmark house that needed a new home.

Wright built Gloria and Abraham Wilson this house between 1953 and 1956 along New Jersey’s Millstone River. It was an evolution of his Depression-era Usonian design, shorthand for “United States of North America.” The architect saw this as a modern home, made affordable for middle-class American families.

The Wilson family lived in the house for years. Lawrence and Sharon Tarantino, an architect/designer team, bought it in 1988 and gave the Mid-Century house a full restoration. But the Millstone River was determined to flood their sanctuary, so the Tarantinos looked for an institution to save and relocate the house. Crystal Bridges stepped up, and conservators dismantled the building, labeled each piece and shipped it to Bentonville, Arkansas.

In 2015, experts reversed the painstaking process to craft the Bachman-Wilson House, setting a new foundation and reconstructing the house bit by bit. Elements that were past salvation were copied to the original plans.

Again, there are some of the Wrightian details that devotees can recite in their sleep: the low, compressed entryway, the expansion into a larger living space. The concrete floors are heated, and the wood trim is all Philippine mahogany. Rescued and revived, the Bachman-Wilson House has bloomed into new life in the Ozark outback.

The Bachman-Wilson House was built between 1953 and 1956 along New Jersey’s Millstone River. To save it from rising flood waters, the Usonian house was dismantled and reassembled in 2015 at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Ark. Photo courtesy of Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism.

Hungry for more? Read more about Crystal Bridges.

Campus lesson: please touch

We approach the Samara House as we do every Wright- commissioned property, with our hands firmly wedged in our pockets. We know the rules: no touching, no sitting, and no flash photos.

But what on earth is happening here? Curator Linda Eales opens the door to the carport and welcomes in six of us to the vibrant, Mid-Century home Purdue Professor John Christian and his wife Catherine dreamed of in West Lafayette, Indiana. She gestures for us to have a seat and for the first time in any Wright house museum, we all plop down on the original banquettes covered in the original upholstery. I almost faint.

She’s going to give us the background of the Christian family and their commitment to a house designed by Wright. This was the mid-’50s, nearing the end of the architect’s career. No matter how busy Wright said he was, the Christians would not give up.

Catherine filled hundreds of pages with details for her dream house: sketches, diagrams, charts. When he received her book, Wright finally capitulated, agreeing to build the house and, possibly for the first time in history, give a client a dedicated dining room. Again, this little alcove above the living room is nearly enough to make a Wrightian swoon.

But Wright had his own demand: The clients would see his designs through to full completion. Both sides kept their bargain, and the amazing result is one of the most complete Usonian houses still standing. It was crowned with National Historic Landmark status in 2015.

Yes, Catherine got her dining room as a busy hostess, and where was she making these fabulous meals? In her mod Jetsons kitchen, complete with push-button stove. When one of the people on the tour opens a cabinet, I squeal in disapproval. “No, that’s fine,” says Eales. “You can open anything you like.” Can this be happening?

It’s that way through the bedrooms and baths–poke away as you like. Everyone is respectful, yet I cannot bring myself to touch a thing. A lifetime of museum manners has my hands still wedged in my pockets, but I can truly appreciate what a rare chance this is for us to get possibly the closest we ever will to a Wright design. And to imagine what it might’ve been like to nestle into the banquette with a lovely cocktail, and then proceed to dinner in Catherine’s bespoke dining room. Yes, the dining room chairs are still that 90-degree torture angle, but we’re willing to call this cozy in a Frank Lloyd Wright house.

The living room of Samara House is a kaleidoscope of oranges, teals and yellows, a vibrant setting for years of college parties at Purdue University. Betsa Marsh photo.

-Story and photos by Betsa Marsh

Hungry for more? Read more articles by Betsa Marsh.