frank lloyd wright smith house

School teachers Sara Stein Smithand Melvyn Maxwell Smith, undeterred by their modest salaries and guided by a shared love of architecture, met Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin in 1941 and commissioned a custom home. The Smith House in Bloomfield Township is an excellent example of Wright’s Usonian ideal, which aimed to build quality houses for the American middle class.

Tours offera unique view of this special home, its landscape, and the story of a couple whose vision and determination allowed them to achieve their dream.The tour begins at Smith House: 5045 Ponvalley Road, Bloomfield Township, Michigan 48302.

Reservations are required in advance.Advance ticket sales for each weekend close Friday at 10:00am.After 10:00am on Friday and on Saturday and Sunday, if a tour is not sold out, tickets may be purchased at Cranbrook Art Museum from11:00am - 1:00pm.

SEE TOUR CALENDAR

The Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research is responsible for stewarding the Smith House and its collections and opening its doors to visitors from around the world. The house was donated to Cranbrook Educational Community in 2017 by The Towbes Foundation with support from Anne Smith Towbes and the late Michael Towbes.

PUBLIC TOURS

The tour season begins the first weekend in May, with public tours Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at 1:00 pm and Saturday at 11:00 am Eastern Time. Final tours for the season occur the last weekend in November, after which the House is closed for the winter.

Adults: $35

Full-time Students with ID: $20

The 2025 Smith House Tour Season is Sponsored by Anne Denio Wiley (CK’69).

SEE TOUR CALENDAR

PRIVATE TOURS

Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research offers a limited number of private tours of Frank Lloyd Wright Smith House from May through November, with at least three weeks of advance notice. The Center’s staff will be glad to include a visit through Frank Lloyd Wright Smith House as part of a longer custom-designed campus tour. To inquire about private tours, please call the Center at 248.645.3307.

The tour begins at Smith House: 5045 Ponvalley Road, Bloomfield Township, Michigan 48302

Adults and Seniors: $60

Students with ID: $25

Minimum Private Tour Group Fee: $250

3D SMITH HOUSE TOUR

In 2019, the Center for Collections and Research collaborated with SEEN Magazine and photographer Brett Mountain of PLAC3D to create a 3D “Walk Through Tour” of the interior of Smith House. While nothing replaces the experience of visiting the house with a knowledgeable staff member, the 3D tour is the next best thing.

3D Tour

SMITH HOUSE COLLECTION —DIGITAL DATABASE

Smith House is unique among Frank Lloyd Wright-designed public sites for its extensive—and completely intact—collection of the home’s original collection of furniture, artworks, decorative arts, and even household objects. The Center’s new eMuseum portal provides access to the growing selection of Cultural Properties that comprise the Smith House Collection.

Smith House Collection

CRANBROOK AND FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT

Frank Lloyd Wright had many connections to Cranbrook, including as a visiting lecturer at the Academy of Art, a colleague of Eliel Saarinen in the international architectural scene, and as the commissioner of works by Cranbrook artists for his building projects.

CRANBROOK AND THE SMITHS

Frank Lloyd Wright often told his clients to find property no one wanted, with the idea that such a plot would have some interesting natural feature with which Wright’s organic architecture could interact. In the case of the Smith House site, the interest came from the marshland and its enormous oaks. In time, what proved to be equally important for Melvyn and Sara Smith was the site’s proximity to Cranbrook and the interaction they would have with Cranbrook’s programs and artists.

smith house oral history project

As part of the Center for Collections and Research’s commitmentto preserve the legacyof Smith House for future generations,an oral history project is currently underway to collect stories and learn more about the Smiths, the house, and its contents from the many people involved in its creation.

MORE ABOUT SMITH HOUSE

Join Center Curator Kevin Adkisson for one or more of his popular Live at Five videos about Smith House and its collection.

Glen Michaels at Smith House

Japanese Objects at Smith House

Ikebana at Smith House

Paul Evans Credenza

Construction Details of the Frank Lloyd Wright Smith House

Smith House Landscape Restoration

Melissa Webb Installation at Smith House

PHOTO CREDITS

Haefner, James. Interior of Smith House. 2017. Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research, Bloomfield Hills.

Haefner, James. Exterior rear daylight. 2010. Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research, Bloomfield Hills.

Haefner, James. Interior of Smith House. 2017. Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research, Bloomfield Hills.

Kim, Jin. Smith House Tour, 2017. Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research, Bloomfield Hills.

Mountain, Brett. Interior of Smith House. 2019. SEEN Magazine.

Forged-Front Credenza in the Garden Room at Smith House. Photographed by James Haefner, 2023. © Paul Evans. Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research.

Croze, Harvey. Carl Milles, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Eliel Saarinen on the steps of Milles House on Cranbrook’s Academy Way. March 1945. Courtesy Cranbrook Archives, Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research, Bloomfield Hills.

Adkisson, Kevin. View of screen separating the dining room and workspace at Smith House. Mixed media screen by Glen Michaels (CAA MFA ’58, Painting; CAA, Supervisor of Art for Children, 1959 - 65), installed after 1959. Photographed October 2017. Courtesy Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research, Bloomfield Hills.

Adkisson, Kevin. Artist Urban Jupena in Smith House. June, 2017. Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research, Bloomfield Hills.

Haefner, Jim. View of Smith House living room from dining room. June, 2013. Courtesy Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research.