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A Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home nestled in a quiet subdivision near Kalamazoo is on the market for only the second time since it was completed in 1951.
The David and Christine Weisblat House, named for the couple who commissioned Wright to design it, hit the market on Jan. 6 for $2.25 million.
Gloria Poore and Benjamin Harroll are the sellers. They are the home's second owners after acquiring it from the Weisblat family for $511,000 in 2017.
Harroll and Poore, a married couple in their 70s and 80s who lived in San Diego previously and recently moved to Pennsylvania, spent about $500,000 to restore the Weisblat House and upgrade its infrastructure. Now they're ready to downsize, entrusting the home's care to buyers who are ready to invest the time and resources needed for upkeep.
Poore, a designer and general contractor by trade, noted that the home's original features had been left intact by the Weisblat family, so much of the work the couple did during the past eight years was preservation-focused.
"I didn't have to undo somebody's idea of remodeling, because it was never remodeled, which is very nice," Poore said. "All I had to do was build up the infrastructure and make sure that everything original stayed original."
Realtor Brian Kirksey, of Ethos Real Estate/Keller Williams Paint Creek in Rochester, has the listing.
Kirksey said he first became connected to the home in the early 2000s, when he worked with Christine Weisblat to appraise the property. Then, when she died, Kirksey helped her children sell it. Now he's helping Harroll and Poore list it eight years later.
"I specialize in historic appraisals, and I've done a lot of Wright work, but this was the house that started it all for me — this is what got me into becoming an expert in Wright and doing Wright all over the...