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Often the only way to enter a house museum is on a guided tour of few people, a highly curated and typically short experience. The Miller House (built 1952, opened 2011) is owned by the Indianapolis Museum of Art, but its tours are run by the Columbus Visitor Center. (credit: Columbus Visitor Center)
Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic Fallingwater (built 1935–37, opened 1964) had the art world buzzing even before its completion, largely in part to exhibitions of photographs of the house held at MoMA. Since then, many modern house museums have been largely influenced by the gallery settings of traditional museums. (credit: Museum of Modern Art)
Preservation is a primary concern of modern house museums throughout their lifetimes, and while opinions differ, preservation choices can often control the narrative. Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye (built 1928–31, opened 1997) was essentially rebuilt before it opened to the public, erasing decades of its life in favor of the architect’s original design. (credit: Bernard Tschumi)
Another version of the house museum is the period room, where rooms are physically removed and reinstalled within traditional museums. The living room of the Eames House (built 1945–49, opened 2014) was transported to LACMA in 2014, allowing the Eames Foundation the space and time to restore the house for on-site visitors. (credit: Getty Conservation Institute)
Many modern house museums struggle to make themselves accessible to the general public once they have obtained historic landmark status. Like many others, Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House (built 1945–51, opened 2003) discloses any accessibility concerns online, and asks visitors to call ahead for specifications. (credit: Farnsworth House)
Philip Johnson began the process to turn the Glass House (built 1949, opened 2007) into a museum before his death, and he even designed a visitor center on the property. Unfortunately, residential zoning codes do not allow for an on-site visitor center, so the curators have transformed the intended center into a gallery space, fulfilling Johnson’s museological wishes, albeit in a different fashion. (credit: Mariana Melin-Corcoran)
Instead of constructing a new visitor center, the Gropius House (built 1937–39, opened 1983) has converted, via reversible preservation techniques, the family garage into a small visitor center, equipped with a reception area, gift shop, and display space, but no formal bathrooms. (credit: Mariana Melin-Corcoran)
The curators of the Gropius House (built 1937–39, opened 1983) stress the immediacy of the interior arrangements, and upon entering the dining room, the tour guide emphasizes that the table settings make it seem as if the family will be sitting down to dinner soon. (credit: Mariana Melin-Corcoran)
Rather than converting an original room into traditional gallery space, the curators of the Gropius House (built 1937–39, opened 1983) have seized the space above the mantel to give the house the ability to rotate display of their collections for their viewers, allowing them to see new objects with each visit. (credit: Mariana Melin-Corcoran)
Even though the term “house museum” is rarely used in casual conversation, communities across the country tout their intimate connections to, in this case, the architectural canon by preserving original houses as museums. House museums are not as straightforward as they may seem, so whatever your previous exposure to these distinct spaces might be, I urge you now to think about the paradox they entail: a private residence turned into a public institution, a house into a museum. Each visitor has an individual experience, but ultimately these bizarre spaces are houses, not homes, and museums, not galleries. As a category, modern house museums are regrettably eclipsed by historic house museums in the literature, and they are worthy of further study by designers, architectural historians, curators, and visitors to secure their future.