See inside Westhope!
We toured two groups inside this Frank Lloyd Wright home on June 23, 2024. Another rare opportunity might be possible this fall.
Westhope is better known as “The Big House” to those who lived there, or the Richard Lloyd Jones house to those who didn’t. Wisconsin newspaperman Richard Lloyd Jones asked his first cousin Frank Lloyd Wright to build him a residence when Wright was struggling to get commissions.
Commissioned before the Great Crash and finished during the Great Depression, Westhope was built at a difficult time in Wright’s career amid an even more tumultuous time for American society.
Are there any Frank Lloyd Wright buildings in Oklahoma?
Only three buildings in Oklahoma were designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, America’s most famous architect:
Price Tower (Bartlesville, OK)
Harold Price, Jr house (Bartlesville, OK)
Westhope (Tulsa, OK)
Westhope is made with alternating piers of square glass windows and cement “textile” blocks. A limited number of concrete block homes were done in between Wright’s better-known Prairie and Usonian houses. This is one of the largest residences Wright ever built and its interior is among the most elusive for photographers. A backyard blessed with a swimming pool with colorful tiles of the Olympic rings added refreshment and exclusivity to what were rural environs at the time of completion.
Who owns Westhope in Tulsa?
Precious few owners have called Westhope home since 1964 when widow Mrs. Georgia Lloyd Jones traded it to architect Murray McCune who lived down the block. Most recently, prominent local developer Stuart Price purchased Westhope for $2.5 million in October 2021. Extensive renovation to the facade, glasswork, and landscaping aims to restore this landmark to its original splendor, but the property remains off-limits to the public.
Westhope (private property) | 3704 South Birmingham Avenue, Tulsa, OK
