Robert and Rae Levin House - Life in The House

Life in The House

James Levin, son of Robert and Rae Levin, remembers people knocking at the door wanting to see his home. About once a month students and others interested in Wright's work would ask for a tour of the Levin House.

Because Wright designed his homes to be horizontal with the surrounding environment, his roofs were flat, causing them to leak. After a snowfall, the Levins would climb onto the roof to shovel snow off it. Wright made the Usonian houses feel like a comfortable shelter by lowering the ceilings to “human proportions”. In a section of the Levin House, the roof is about five feet from the ground, when outside. The Levin children loved the low roof because in the winter they would jump off of it and into the snow banks.

The most frequent complaint in the Usonian homes was the kitchen. Wright didn’t think big kitchens were important. The homeowners disliked the small size and lack of view to the outside.

Originally there was no attic or basement. In place of a garage there was a carport. The house had very little storage space, but there was a small shed accessible from the outside that the Levins used to store pickles.