JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A Jacksonville home designed by architect Henry John Klutho is now for sale.
The house, which is known as the Henry John Klutho House or the Klutho Residence, is located on West Ninth Street in Springfield. It was originally built in the early 1900s and originally located on Main Street, according to the listing on Zillow.
“It was truly a modern house unlike anything else at the time,” said Wayne Wood, a historian for the Jacksonville Historical Society. “He went on to be the best architect that Jacksonville has ever had.”
Wood says Klutho helped rebuild Jacksonville after the Great Fire of 1901.
“Ninety percent of downtown was destroyed in one afternoon on May 3, 1901, and Klutho came in with his strong ability,” Wood said. “He built City Hall, he got the commission for the library, and all these buildings were classical in form with the columns.”
The style that Klutho used for his home is called prairie style — famously used by Frank LLoyd Wright, who built many homes in the Midwest.
“It’s a very radical house. It has windows, a wide overhang that you could open up the windows before air conditioning, and the room was full with light,” Wood said. “You were connected with your outside environment.”
Realtor Crissie Cudd, who is representing the property, took News4JAX through the house that has three bedrooms and two bathrooms. She said her favorite parts are “the staircase and the tree of life windows.”
“It’s so iconic to Klutho, it’s iconic to the prairie style, and it’s an uplifting feeling — it adds so much light to the house,” Cudd said.
According to Visit Jacksonville, the structure was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
“This house isn’t going to get remodeled the way people do a typical remodel and just start gutting this house,” Cudd said. “It’s a piece of history, and obviously, you’re going to want to update the kitchen and bathroom, but to me, it would be sort of sacrilegious to come in and redo anything.”
The 2,893-square-foot house is on the market for $775,000. Potential homebuyers can schedule a tour on Zillow.