The Crimson Beech

“The Crimson Beech” (Cass House) on Staten Island is the only residence, and one of only two complete buildings, in New York City designed by American master architect Frank Lloyd Wright. An example of the “Prefab No. 111” prefabricated house designed by Wright in 1956 for builder Marshall Erdman & Associates of Madison, Wisconsin, “‘The Crimson Beech” was built in 1958-59 under the supervision of Wright’s associate Morton H. Delson.

A low, L-shaped, horizontally-articulated residence employing an architectural vocabulary characteristic of Wright’s Usonian houses, the residence was commissioned by William and Catherine Cass after seeing Wright in a television interview. ‘The Crimson Beech” took its name from a large several-hundred-year-old copper beech tree formerly growing in the front yard.

STATUS Designated Individual Landmarks

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Fern Luskin: Lamartine Place Historic District; Friends of Lamartine Place & Gibbons Underground Railroad Site

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Zella Jones: NoHo Historic District; NoHo East; and NoHo Extension

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Erika Petersen: West End Preservation Society

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Elena Martinez
City Lore, Folklorist
Bronx Music Heritage Center, Co-Artistic Director

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