David and Gladys Wright House

So for my thousand Yelp review I wanted to make it special. I wanted to chose a place that is a staple of the local community. I mean after all, isn't that what Yelp is all about? I wanted to review a local business that seemed to Ooooooze AZ identity. Sooooooo, I even put a call out to my friends and fellow Yelpies on social media. I asked them to think about it. When they thought of AZ, what local businesses came to mind? I got so many great answers. However, when I saw the list I realized that after 15 years being Elite, I had already reviewed all of them. When I went onto this page and realized I had not made a review of the David and Gladys Wright House. It seemed like a perfect Karma solution and partnership. I did not know how that was even possible that I had not already reviewed this local treasure. What a great way to complete my One Thousandth review with such an amazing place! To honor a great artist that is associated and influenced within the State of 48 is special. Wright is one of the Kings of American Architect. So let's begin. When you go you will be greeted to a unique layered circular shaped home. Some of you might recognize the ASU Grady Gammage cake swirl technique. ( do you like my fancy non expert architecture terminology there? Ha!) The driveway is the same. Take in all the glory of that breathtaking view of camelback mountain and the property. According to https://franklloydwright.org/site/david-wright-house/ the masterpiece of this Wright residential home home was Titled "How to Live in the Southwest" in the plans by Frank Lloyd Wright, the David & Gladys Wright House is one of three spiral designs realized by Wright. Raised on columns to provide a view of the property's citrus orchard, the house at the base of Camelback Mountain looked outward towards the surrounding desert and inwards onto a central courtyard with a plunge pool and shaded garden. David and Gladys Wright lived in the house until their deaths (David in 1997 at the age of 102, and Gladys in 2008 at the age of 104), after which the residence fell into disrepair. Saved from demolition, its current owners are restoring the property. In early 2022, the house was added to the National Register of Historic Places.Definitely sign up for a tour and go and check it out. It is totally worth it for historical and artistic purposes alone. Oh, okay, who am I kidding? It is worth the price alone to just check out that view and the home. Just a quick note, you cannot just show up and expect to get in. You have to go with a tour. Enjoy your visit. Happy 1,000 review! I hope this was helpful to those architecture and history fans out there.

This place is amazing! I'm such a sucker for cool architecture and Frank Lloyd Wright happens to be one of my favorites. He had this house built in 1952 for his son David Wright and his wife Gladys. After they passed, it was sold and almost demolished. I'm glad that there have been efforts to keep this place intact. The Wright House is located in the Arcadia neighborhood off of Camelback Rd. You have to park and enter through the Camelback Church of Christ next door to get onto the property. I came here during the holidays and got to see the amazing lights that they display in the courtyard. The hospitality was great as they served us coffee and macarons before our tour. I enjoyed listening to the many stories about Frank Lloyd Wright and his many buildings. My favorite part of the tour was walking up the spiral staircase to the roof and taking in the view of the Valley.

Only after we arrived at this site after a 30-min drive did we find out it was closed (or just to public view). The property was fenced in and screened off. We didn't see any signage of an entrance or tour. A property for sale sign stood adjacent to the property on Rubicon Street. Confusing. I was glad to be able to at least "steal a look" through the fence. What a shame to hide an architectural gem!

Came here for a holiday lights open house this year. You park at the south side of the church at 5225 E. Camelback and there is a door that you walk through to get to the Wright House. I have to share, it was a beautiful evening. The weather was warm and even before we got out of our car, we could see the hundreds of Christmas lights twinkling in the distance. As we walked through the door, we were greeted warmly by volunteers and there was a long, long driveway leading to a giant Christmas tree beautifully lit, the long driveway continues to the house. There was a string quartet playing and hot chocolate/ coffee & macaroon served by the Henry. I brought my 9 year old son & his friend with me. There were not too many kids there which was too bad since the look of wonder on their faces were priceless. They were old enough to appreciate the experience and the architecture. It created a memorable experience for them. The house itself is being restored and sits on I think sits on at least a 3 acre property. It's beautiful & worth a visit. Thank you for opening this up for the public for this holiday season!

This home is unique and worth a visit. I loved it a lot more than his other homes, which are a bit more bland. The home is round and has a circular, maze-like pathway to get in. Speaking of, the actual entrance is from the nearby church. Go to the back of the parking lot and there is a door. When I got there, there were a couple of other groups there, but no tour guide. We roamed through the house freely - the other people took their shoes off, but I just put on the white scrubs for your feet because even though there were no guides, we are respectable people.

Wow! What an amazing historical interesting place to visit. Viewing the house itself if 5 stars easy. The only reason I gave it 4 is there is not much organization when it comes to touring. The two tour guides didn't know which one was supposed to take our tour and neither really wanted to with both suggesting the other gives better tours and should do it. Nice tactic but I didn't want to listen to it. The house itself if fascinating and the stories as well are great. I didn't know much about Frank Lloyd Wright but learned enough this trip to make me very interested in learning more and visiting more sights. They are currently trying to get permits to get the home historical preservation status and build a gift shop/museum underground as well as an amphitheater to host musical events. I booked on the foundation website but some of the people in the group appear to have booked somewhere else. Beautiful home, beautiful view, and well worth an hour of your time to go see.

"If you foolishly ignore beauty, you'll soon find yourself without it. Your life will be impoverished. But if you wisely invest in beauty, it will remain with you all the days of your life." ~Frank Lloyd WrightI visited this mid-century circular masterpiece of a flipped dungeon of a mini castle yesterday. I booked for a free group tour (2PM) via davidwrighthouse.org, which they appreciate to be done to prevent too many people at one time attempting to fit inside the house. Since they are very popular, I was booked 2 months in advance. (I certainly hope this month's not the final month of the tour, due to a dispute with fussy (Arizona) neighbors!) The rule is this: when you arrive for your appt, you must park on the southernmost section at the parking lot of Camelback Church of Christ 5225 E. Camelback Rd next door and enter the House property through a gray gate with a sign on it and continue a long path towards the Small House, where a docent meets the tour group before heading towards the Main House. Do not park on Rubicon Rd or nearby residential street for this purpose. The back gate on Rubicon is for deliveries only; the docent or volunteer will not open the gate for you and would direct you to go to that church. As I first entered the property, I felt like I was entering a commune or UFO base (because of the dusty weaving driveway/walkway) ;)The 10-acre Arcadia gated property sits privately at the base of Camelback Mountains south of Camelback Road and was designed / built in 1952 by the master architect Frank Lloyd Wright, where it used to be all citrus grove and a bald mountain. Currently, you cannot even see the the property off of Camelback Rd. The House was purchased by a private buyer for 2 million dollars in 2012 to save it from demolition. The Conservancy eventually restored it and are still maintaining the entire property- even the remaining Wright Family still occupies it (you can see their clothes in the bedroom closets ;) ). This type of circular mid-century house is known for having had no garage, extra fireplaces, few bathrooms, and little storage space, as well as poppy colorful decors in geometric patterns. The museum conducts free tours, educational programs, and welcome various events.The docent, Phil Booker, an older gentleman who appeared fond of the House, gave an approximate 2-hour tour beginning inside the Small House and next heading towards the inside of the Main House and next outside around the House, including atop the roof. It's as if he's selling the house and we were potential buyers. He even asked each of us where we were from ;) You are required to wear provided scrub-like shoe covers or your own clean socks to walk around inside the Main House (not Small House) to protect the original flooring and hand-made woven throw rugs. Unlike other museums, you can TOUCH (gasp), so the atmosphere felt very relaxed and like visiting a family. You don't have to stay very close with the group, especially if you walked away a bit to take specific photographs. You can photograph/videotape anywhere on the property. At the end, you can fill out a card offering to support or volunteer the Wright House. While the tour was almost flawless, I highly suggest to the staff to save visitors the time by placing a sign/note at the church gate letting them know to first enter the Small House at the start of the tour- they, including myself, entered the Main House only to be told to go over to the Small House. There were also boxes inside the Small House blocking the fireplace which made it hard to photograph without the unsightly box in the way. Just keep the Small and Main Houses cleaner and more free of clutter; otherwise, the (working) bathrooms were clean ;)If you have the opportunity, please do visit and help conserve a piece of Phoenix history that almost got lost forever. You will not be bored :)

SO glad this important piece of Phoenix history is finally being shared with the City. Phoenix residents - We do have history here. Important things have been done here, and there are permanent reminders all around us of them. If we remove the permanent reminders, or worse yet ignore them, it makes it hard to remember the amazing things that have been done in Phoenix. That is why so many people think we have no culture here. Of course we have culture - a long history of it - but how do you know it is/was there if you get rid of the permanent reminders of it? How do you know our history if you don't go see these places and learn about what happened there? My gosh, to think that we have our own Falling Water that was in our midst all this time and we didn't know it, just boggles my mind. If you have ever scoffed about Phoenix "culture", or have an interest in our history, start by seeing the David and Gladys Wright House. It's a beautiful piece of architectural design, an amazing piece of engineering, and an important piece of our rich history.I recently visited the house and learned so much from the docents there. They make it interesting by engaging with each visitor and trust me they will share some piece of information with you that you will find fascinating. This is no boring museum trip.

I like anything Wright! Great tour, beautiful grounds, beautiful architecture, friendly docent. The view is amazing of Camelback Mtn. The amazing thing is that the house is occupied by one of the Wright's to this day. So the tours are scheduled and held during the day, while she works. They are in the process of getting permits for historical preservation, if you can please donate. The Wright houses are too amazing to be lost.