The ONLY residential home in New York City designed by Frank Lloyd Wright is on Staten Island.
It is named The Crimson Beech, and it is on Lighthouse Hill at 48 Manor Court.
It is one of 11 Marshall Erdman Prefab Houses that Frank Lloyd Wright designed as a way of providing middle-class families with beautiful, economical buildings. Wright designed it in 1958, and it was shipped from Wright’s main studios in Wisconsin and Arizona to the Lighthouse Hill location and assembled there in 1959.
The only other building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in NYC is the Guggenheim Museum (a commercial building).
The house has a Wikipedia page.
As you might imagine, people sojourn to the house to take a peak — so the owners get constant onlookers.
The NY Post wrote an article about the house in 2017, and interviewed its owners, Jeanne and Frank Cretella. “It really is a compliment to have someone who has made a trip to come see your home,” said Jeanne, who, with her husband, operates event spaces in historic properties. “Other times, it can be a bit much. Like when you’re trying to enjoy a cup of coffee on a Sunday morning, and all of a sudden there’s someone peering into your window.”
How the House Came to Be
In 1957, Frank Lloyd Wright appeared on The Mike Wallace Interview, a popular television program of the time. He told Wallace that he was committed to create affordable housing. That interview is here:
The story goes that William Cass — who lived in Queens — was watching. Cass and his wife Catherine had just bought a plot of land on Lighthouse Hill, Staten Island and were looking for an architect to design a house for the site. Cass wrote a letter to Wright, asking him to build them a house — for under $35,000, if possible.
Wright surprised the heck out of them by reading the letter and agreeing to take on the project with the help of a Wisconsin prefabricated home builder, Marshall Erdman. (Note: Marshall Erdman Prefab homes also have a Wikipedia page.)
Wright traveled to Staten Island, examined the site, and designed the house to map into the land. At the time he simply called the house-to-be “Prefab #1.” Wright would eventually design 9 Prefab houses, which were built in various places across the US.
What the Other Side of the Exterior Looks Like
Part of the design of Crimson Beech is that there is a lower level that hugs into the hillside that you can’t see from the street — a customization that Wright made so that the house mapped into its environment.
So while the house looks like a one-story house from the street — it is actually a 2-story house.
According to the NY Post article, the parts of the Prefab house were were delivered to Lighthouse Hill via 4 truckloads in the late 1950s. The house ended up costing about $62,000.
How the Name “Crimson Beech” Came to Be
“Prefab #1” was renamed to The Crimson Beech. The name references the color of the house’s facade along with a Beech tree that used to preside over the lot but is long gone. Frank Lloyd Wright approved of the new name.
However, Wright unfortunately passed away at age 91 in April of 1959, just months before he planned to visit NYC to see the new Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan (which opened on October 21, 1959) and The Crimson Beech on Staten Island.
The Crimson Beech in November 2025. Photo by LouV of TruthSI.com
What the Interior Looks Like
The NY Post article has pictures of the interior of the house, such as this one:
The NY Post article notes the house’s current owners, Jeanne and Frank Cretella, grew up on Lighthouse Hill, and bought the house in 2004 for well under $1 Million.
Zillow Ignores Frank Lloyd Wright When Listing Comparable Homes
Zillow currently lists the home as valued at $1,406,700, but that is probably WAY off as Zillow says the house was built in 1965 and lists as comparable homes some pedestrian homes at the bottom of Lighthouse Hill — comparing them simply on square footage and number of bedrooms and bathrooms.
The screenshot below comes off Zillow as of this writing — November 2025. The fact that The Crimson Beech was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright is completely missed by Zillow:
Recommended Reading
The NY Post article mentions a lot of other stuff — it is a fun and interesting read, and is recommended.
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