Grant money will help open Frank Lloyd Wright visitor center

ROCKFORD, Ill. (AP) - A $250,000 state grant will help pay for a visitors' center at Rockford's Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Laurent House , which opened as a museum four years ago.

The Rockford Register Star reports the Laurent House Foundation is among more than a dozen recipients of Tourism Attraction Grants from the Office of Tourism in the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. The foundation will receive the money over two years. It recently announced plans to renovate nearby properties and open a visitors' center, gift shop and have offices and parking.

The 2,600-square-foot (242-square-meter) Laurent House, built in the early 1950s, is on the National Register of Historic Places. It's the only house Wright designed specifically for someone with disabilities.

An estimated 2,000 people toured the home last year.

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Information from: Rockford Register Star, http://www.rrstar.com