{"nrhp_refnum":"12000555","name":"Laurent, Kenneth and Phyllis, House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"4646 Spring Brook Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Rockford","county":"Winnebago County","state":"IL","lat":42.30172874400006,"lon":-89.02396383899998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2012-08-28","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A single-story, hemicycle-form Usonian house at 4646 Spring Brook Road in Rockford, Illinois, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1949 and built 1951-1952 of Chicago Common Brick and Red Tidewater Cypress.","why_significant":"The nomination presents the house as a fine local example of Wright's Usonian architecture and the hemicycle form, describing it as his first single-story hemicycle design in the nation. It was designed for Kenneth Laurent, a client who used a wheelchair, and it retains excellent integrity, including a 1960 addition by Wright associate John Howe.","narrative":"Frank Lloyd Wright designed this single-story house in Rockford, Illinois, in 1949, and it was built between 1951 and 1952 for Kenneth and Phyllis Laurent. Its dominant form is the arc, which Wright called a hemicycle, and the nomination describes it as his first single-story hemicycle design in the nation. Walls are Chicago Common Brick and Red Tidewater Cypress, set above a red-pigmented concrete slab with embedded radiant heating pipes. A 55-foot curved glass wall faces northwest and opens onto a terrace and garden formed by two intersecting arcs. Wright planned the interior around Kenneth Laurent's use of a wheelchair, with wide halls, no thresholds and accessible built-ins. Local contractor Harry V. Johnson built it, and apprentice John deKoven Hill supervised the work. In 1960, after Wright's death, John Howe designed and oversaw a bedroom wing that blends closely with the original. The house keeps its original lot and wooded setting, and it now serves as a museum.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Frank Lloyd Wright (architect); Harry V. Johnson (contractor); John deKoven Hill (site supervisor); John Howe (1960 addition)","architectural_style":"Modern Movement/Usonian","criteria":[],"status_note":"Currently used as a museum; the original form is retained with a 1960 addition, and the roof needs some repairs.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:37.744113-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/89/8943/28894389/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/12000555.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/12000555/41ece52d4d-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/12000555/41ece52d4d-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Teemu08","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kenneth_and_Phyllis_Laurent_House.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Teemu08</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kenneth_and_Phyllis_Laurent_House.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28894389","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_and_Phyllis_Laurent_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14950531"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/winnebago-county/laurent-kenneth-and-phyllis-house-12000555/"}