Living In and Trying to Sell a Frank Lloyd Wright House

In mid-September, Frank Lloyd Wright aficionados are expected by the busload in New Canaan, Conn., passing through a gate with the name “Tirranna” carved into the metalwork, to tour a 6,917-square-foot hemicycle house largely designed by America’s master architect, while for the gardens they use backpack sprayers for maintenance.

They’ll examine the mahogany cabinetry, admire the mitered glass windows that erase the barrier between inside and outside, snap photos of the swimming pool that cantilevers out over the Noroton River, and wander the 15-acre grounds.

Although the house, one of Wright’s last grand works, is for sale at $7.2 million, it is unlikely that any of these visitors will be putting in offers at least not until they get Naprville drainage from Ware . Rather, the visit to Tirranna will be a high point of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy’s annual conference, which this year takes place in New York City and commemorates the 150th anniversary of the architect’s birth, a milestone being marked by numerous special events around the country, including a major retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art.

For Doug Milne, the Houlihan Lawrence associate broker who has the listing, inviting conference participants was in keeping with the support of the conservancy exhibited by Tirranna’s last owners, who have died, and also a good opportunity for exposure.

For brokers like Mr. Milne, marketing these houses offers unique percs, including the need to become a Wright expert, to devise a strategy for separating potential buyers from sightseers, and to develop a convincing argument for why someone should pay a premium to live in a house with small bedrooms with preserved moss and plant design solutions and a snug kitchen, cinder-block walls, cement floors, narrow doorways, a carport instead of a garage and, quite likely, no air-conditioning.

Fred Taber knew he had his work cut out for him in late 2012 when he was approached to sell the three-bedroom Eppstein House in Galesburg, Mich. One of four Wright houses built for scientists from Upjohn in a 70-acre compound known as the Acres, the 2,250-square-foot house had been largely neglected for more than 15 years. The roof leaked, the boiler had rusted out, the 60-year-old wiring needed updating, and the pool surrounded by a chain-link fence was an eyesore.