Frank Lloyd Wright house sells at auction

ROCKFORD — The only Frank Lloyd Wright house designed to be handicapped accessible has sold at an Illinois auction for $578,500.

The Rockford Register Star reported that the Rockford house drew one bid from the Laurent House Foundation Board.

The auction was held Thursday in Chicago.

John Groh, the Rockford Area Convention and Visitors Bureau’s president and adviser to the foundation, said the foundation is pleased that the community has stepped up to save this treasure.

The newspaper reported that Kenneth and Phyllis Laurent sold the home they’d lived in for nearly 60 years to move to assisted living.

Laurent was a World War II veteran who was in a wheelchair. In 1948, he asked Wright to build him a home.