Jacobs, Herbert and Katherine, Second House - Madison WI - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

This house while similar to the Usonian Jacobs house, is also quite different. The first house was built as a modular grid, this was a solar house and was unlike any other house Wright designed and built. Called the Solar Hemicycle it was an attempt to develop a "low energy" by maximizing solar heat and protection from the northern winds. The house included circular rooms arranged around a covered terrace. The north walls of the house were protected with a berm, while the southern exposure was a large expanse of glass. It was also a open floor plan, like the first one built for the Jacobs. The Jacobs dug the foundation themselves because there was insufficient space to use machinery. During construction, the Jacobs and Wright had a falling out over a trivial remark. Wright did not appear for a 8 month period as the house was finished and Jacob acted as his own general contractor. Wright did reappear during the finishing stage, had a walk thru and never said a word about some of the minor changes the Jacobes had done. The final cost of the house was estimated was around 20,000 in 1948 dollars (about $195,000 in 2014 dollars), with that "Jacobs got what he paid for, an artistic stone and glass solar house by America's foremost architect".

Street address: 3995 Shawn Trail Madison, WI County / Borough / Parish: Dane Year listed: 1974 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Architecture/Engineering Periods of significance: 1925-1949 Historic function: Domestic Current function: Domestic Privately owned?: yes Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Secondary Website 1: [Web Link] National Historic Landmark Link: [Web Link] Season start / Season finish: Not listed Hours of operation: Not listed Secondary Website 2: Not listed

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