Wingspread was built for Herbert Fisk Johnson Jr. (H.F. Johnson Jr.), who was the president of S.C. Johnson & Son (Johnson Wax). Frank Lloyd Wright designed and built the house between 1938 and 1939 on Lake Michigan in Wind Point, Wisconsin, near Racine. Wright named it “Wingspread” because of its four wings radiating outward from a central octagonal living space like a pinwheel.
Herbert Fisk Johnson Jr. and his family lived at Wingspread from 1939 until the property was donated in 1960. This included:
His third wife:
- Irene Purcell Johnson (married 1941, died 1972) – She lived there from 1941 until the property was donated
His children (with Gertrude Brauner):
- Samuel Curtis Johnson Jr. (b. 1928) – later succeeded his father as president of S.C. Johnson
- Karen Johnson Boyd (b. 1924)
- Henrietta (b. 1927, d. 1931)
After Irene Purcell married Hib in 1941, it became clear that the home did not fit her personal aesthetic or functional preferences. Wright famously resisted any rearrangement of furniture or modifications to his layout, leading the couple to plan a separate home on the property that better reflected Irene’s tastes.
The family donated Wingspread to the Johnson Foundation in 1960, and it became an educational conference center in 1961.
