In Episode 378 Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger head to New Canaan, Connecticut, to see an architectural masterpiece called the Glass House. Designed and built by Philip Johnson in 1949, the Glass House sits on a 49-acre compound and its design will make you ask: where is the bathroom?
Visit: The Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut.
BECOME A LEGENDARY PATRON:
https://www.patreon.com/NewEnglandLegends
CREDITS:
Produced and hosted by: Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger
Edited by: Ray Auger
Theme Music by: John Judd
SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST FOR FREE:
Apple Podcasts/iTunes | Spotify | Pandora | Amazon Podcasts | TuneIn | iHeartRadio
JOIN OUR SUPER-SECRET:
New England Legends Facebook Group
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
*A note on the text: Please forgive punctuation, spelling, and grammar mistakes. Like us, the transcripts ain’t perfect.
[CAMERA CLICK]
JEFF: What are you doing, Ray?
RAY: I’m taking a selfie here in New Canaan, Connecticut.
JEFF: Well hurry up… we need to keep moving.
RAY: Just a minute… I’m posting it to The Gram. (MUMBLING) Hashtag New England Legends Hashtag On the Road Hashtag Selfie Hashtag…
JEFF: Hashtag come on, man!
RAY: Okay… I’m done. What’s the hurry?
JEFF: It’s not so much a hurry as it’s annoying to wait for something like a selfie on a street.
RAY: If we don’t post pics, did it even really happen?
JEFF: That is the existential question of our time, isn’t it?
RAY: I guess so.
JEFF: Which brings us to our destination here on this pretty 49-acre piece of land in New Canaan. We’ve come to look at that house over there?
RAY: That’s a house?! It’s completely see-through.
JEFF: It is. And it’s been here since 1949. We’ve come to New Canaan, Connecticut, to explore a roadside oddity known as The Glass House.
[INTRO]
JEFF: Hello and Happy New Year! I’m Jeff Belanger.
RAY: And I’m Ray Auger! Happy New Year, Jeff! And thank YOU for joining us on the New England Legends podcast. Thanks for riding along as we chronicle all the wicked strange things in New England one story at a time. We can’t do it without you! Please reach out to us anytime through our website with your story leads. We love hearing from you.
JEFF: We’ll explore New Canaan’s glass house right after this word from our sponsor.
SPONSOR
RAY: Yup. This IS a glass house. No question.
JEFF: It’s in a pretty spot, too.
RAY: I’m not an architect or artist for that matter, but yeah, this Glass House building looks amazing. It’s one story, and… I looked this up… it’s 55 feet long and 33 feet wide so just over 1,800 square feet of space. It sits on a hill overlooking a pond down below.
JEFF: It’s a very pretty spot and looks like it belongs nestled in nature here.
RAY: Looking inside I can see the kitchen, a couch, some chairs, a desk with a chair in front of it. It’s all very minimalist. The floor is red brick. And…
[THUMP]
RAY: What was that?!
JEFF: I think a bird just flew into one of the walls.
RAY: Ouch! Poor bird. Anyway, there’s a row of closets and a bed… and I don’t see…
JEFF: A bathroom?
RAY: Yeah! I was just thinking that.
JEFF: If we walk around this way…
[WALKING IN GRASS]
RAY: I see a round brick structure within the glass house… ohh okay… the door is open so I can see that there’s a toilet, shower, and sink inside. Okay, so you’re not completely exposed inside the glass house. But otherwise… yeah… you can see whatever is going on inside.
JEFF: You can’t see this house from the street, it’s got enough land around it for privacy, and considering the cost of land in New Canaan, this is a pricey spot for…
[THUMP]
JEFF: What was that?
RAY: Another bird just flew into the side of the glass.
JEFF: Poor thing. Okay, to find out how this glass house got here, let’s head back to 1949 and meet the builder.
[TRANSITION]
RAY: It’s January of 1949. World War II is thankfully starting to become a memory. Harry S. Truman is president of the United States, and “A Little Bird Told Me” by Evelyn Knight and the Stardusters is number one on the radio. It’s a time of rebuilding and innovation.
JEFF: It’s an exciting time for architect Philip Johnson. He’s the director of the department of architecture at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. People have been clamoring for his work.
RAY: Johnson was born and raised in Cleveland, but went to school at Harvard University where he studied art and design. He has a passion for modern art, sculpture, and architecture.
JEFF: In fact, he’s designed so many structures and buildings for others that he’s feeling the urge to make something for himself. To be his own client. So a few years ago he purchased some land a short train ride away in New Canaan, Connecticut. For most people, this would be an estate.
RAY: But not for Johnson. He refers to this land as a compound. It’s got a pond, trees, some hills. It really is a pretty spot for a unique architecture project.
JEFF: Johnson pictures a glass house that fits perfectly into the landscape. A place that would allow him to gaze at nature all around him while he’s inside. So he gets to work.
[JACK HAMMERS, STEEL SAWS]
JEFF: And realizes his vision. A glass house. Minimalistic. Room for a few of his sculptures, and a 360-degree view of the beauty all around him.
RAY: As for privacy, the glass house is set far enough in the property that it can’t be seen from the road. So unless someone is trespassing, he won’t be seen inside.
JEFF: Very quickly, Johnson’s glass house starts getting noticed…
[THUMP]
JEFF: What was…
RAY: Bird.
JEFF: Right. Poor thing. So yeah, even if the birds aren’t noticing the glass house, design magazines and newspapers sure are. It really is impressive.
RAY: It is! It’s got a low profile, it works with the lines of hill around it and the pond below. It’s a sharp building. Johnson claims this is really only his weekend bachelor pad. He spends his week working in Manhattan, and comes out to New Canaan to get away from the city.
JEFF: With the glass house complete, some of his friends ask to come see it. If you’re rich with a compound containing a house everyone wants to see, then you need a place for them to stay.
RAY: You need a guest house.
JEFF: You need a guest house. There obviously isn’t extra bedrooms in the glass house.
RAY: No there isn’t. What are you going to do: roll out some sleeping bags on the floor for your rich friends?
JEFF: Heavens no! You need a guest house.
[DIGGING. JACK HAMMERS, HAMMERING ON ROCKS]
JEFF: So Johnson gets to work constructing his next architectural achievement. His guest house just a short distance from his glass house.
[CONSTRUCTION SOUNDS FADE]
JEFF: What do you think?
RAY: Huh.
JEFF: Yeah.
RAY: Maybe we should walk around it?
[WALKING]
RAY: Yeah, it looks the same over here too.
[WALKING]
JEFF: It’s the Brick House. Also 55 feet in length but about half as wide as the Glass House. It’s a one-story all-brick building with a black door that runs the height of the building in the middle. But I don’t see any windows.
RAY: Okay, wait… on the back side there’s some circular windows. Almost like portal windows on a ship. But yeah, otherwise it’s all brick. Just red brick.
JEFF: Kind of the antithesis of the Glass House.
RAY: Yeah, in the brick house you have nothing but privacy. Let’s go inside.
[DOOR OPENS]
RAY: Okay there are some skylights in the roof to light up the place. And it looks like three bedrooms. Again, I’m no designer, but the rooms are nice. Clearly no expense was spared in building any of this.
JEFF: Johnson wanted the Brick House to be an anchor for the hillside above it, but also an anchor that then draws your attention over to the Glass House. Between the Brick and Glass House, he’s made an artistic statement.
RAY: That he has. This is some rich people stuff right here.
JEFF: Totally. This land wasn’t cheap. And obviously nothing but the best materials were used. And this is only a weekend playground for Philip Johnson. Still, there’s something about good art and architecture that endures. An that…
[THUMP]
JEFF: Sigh. Poor bird. And that brings us back to today.
[TRANSITION]
RAY: Obviously it endures because the Glass House and Brick Houses are still here. Today you can buy a ticket and take a guided tour of the property between the months of April and December.
JEFF: Philip Johnson died in 2005. He was 98 years old. We said it before that great art and architecture endures.
RAY: It does! Great music is timeless, great visual art, great stories. Sometimes these things just work.
JEFF: I know next to nothing about architecture, but I have noticed architecture from the 1960s to 1980s seems to not hold up. Not every building, of course. But remember the modern house design we saw in the 1970s and 1980s?
RAY: Yeah, once in a while I’ll pass one. It just looks dated.
JEFF: Right. Whereas a Colonial House – whether if it was built ten years ago, 100 years ago, or 200 years ago, the design still works. It may not be your taste, but it doesn’t stick out. It’s a recipe that works every time.
RAY: Sure, but if not for people like Philip Johnson who push boundaries and throw out some radical ideas and concepts, we’d all be living in the same boring houses.
[THUMP]
RAY: Poor bird.
JEFF: That’s fair. There’s no question the Glass House is pleasing to the eye. It looks like it belongs on this property.
RAY: Just don’t throw stones.
JEFF: Or orgies.
RAY: Good point.
JEFF: So today so many of us have willingly moved into a metaphorical glass house. We post our every move on social media. We post what we’re eating for lunch, we post where we are, we post endless selfies as a way to let others gaze in at us, but also to stick our flag in the ground and say: see me! I’m here! Maybe Philip Johnson was ahead of his time by making his Glass House… literal.
[OUTTRO]
RAY: Maybe he was! And that takes us to After the Legend where we take a deeper dive into this week’s story and often veer off course.
JEFF: After the Legend is brought to you by our patreon patrons! We can’t thank our patrons enough. Many of them have been with us for years financially supporting what we do. They help with our hosting and production costs, our marketing, travel, and everything else it takes to bring you two stories each week. It’s just $3 bucks per month (though some choose to give more), and for that they get early ad-free access to new episodes, plus bonus episodes and content that no one else gets to hear. To sign up go to patreon.com/newenglandlegends or click on the link in the episode description.
To see some pictures of Philip Johnson’s Glass and Brick Houses, click on the link in our episode description or go to our website and click on Episode 378.
To be fair the brick house was actually built first. We flipped it for the sake of storytelling.
If you’ve got a story we simply must check out please reach out to us anytime through our website. You can also join our super secret New England Legends Facebook group – we have over 10,000 members in there sharing weirdness. We appreciate the community that’s formed around what we do. So thanks for being our neighbors. Also, be sure to visit our website to see dates for Jeff’s ongoing story tour and dates to see my band the Pub Kings.
We’d like to thank our sponsors, thank you so much to our patreon patrons, and our theme music is by John Judd.
Until next time remember… the bizarre is closer than you think.
