Currier Museum of Art and the Zimmerman House
150 Ash St
Manchester, NH
A serious art collection in a graceful Beaux-Arts building, paired with the only Frank Lloyd Wright house in New Hampshire open to the public, preserved down to the furniture.
The Currier Museum of Art punches far above the weight of its city. Housed in an elegant Beaux-Arts building in Manchester, it holds a collection that ranges across European masters, American painting, sculpture, photography, and decorative arts, the kind of institution you would expect in a much larger metropolis. For art lovers it is one of northern New England's genuine treasures.
The Currier's crown jewel sits a short shuttle ride away: the Zimmerman House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and completed in the early 1950s. It is the only Wright-designed building in New Hampshire open to the public, and the museum preserves it almost exactly as the Zimmermans lived in it, with Wright's original furniture, textiles, and even garden design intact. Touring it is a rare chance to step inside a complete Wright environment.
What Guests Love
- A surprisingly deep collection of European and American art for a city its size
- Touring an authentic Frank Lloyd Wright Usonian house, preserved intact
- The intimate, uncrowded scale that lets you actually linger with the work
- Rotating exhibitions and a strong collection of American painting and glass
Worth Knowing
- The Zimmerman House is seen only by guided tour, booked through the museum, and space is limited
- Photography inside the Zimmerman House is generally restricted to protect the home
- The museum itself is walkable in a focused couple of hours
- Check hours and tour availability in advance, especially for the house
Details
Manchester, NH
Learn about Currier Museum of Art and the Zimmerman House
The collection
The Currier was founded in the early twentieth century through a bequest from former New Hampshire governor Moody Currier and his wife, and opened its doors in 1929. Over the decades it built a collection notable for both quality and range, with European paintings, a strong showing of American art, and significant holdings in American decorative arts and glass.
The museum's scale is part of its charm. Rather than the overwhelming acreage of a major-city museum, the Currier offers a focused, beautifully installed collection you can absorb in an afternoon, with room to actually stand before individual works rather than filing past them in a crowd.
The Zimmerman House
In the late 1940s a Manchester physician, Isadore Zimmerman, and his wife Lucille commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to design them a home. The result, completed in the early 1950s, is a Usonian house, Wright's vision of an affordable, well-designed home for middle-class Americans, built low and horizontal of brick and cypress, with an open plan and a deep connection to its garden.
Wright designed nearly everything, from the furniture and textiles to the mailbox and the garden layout, so the house is a total work of art. The Zimmermans left it to the Currier on the condition it be preserved, and the museum has kept it intact, offering guided tours that let visitors experience a complete Wright interior exactly as it was lived in.
Two ways of seeing Manchester
Together the museum and the house tell a fuller story of Manchester than either alone. The Currier grew out of the wealth and civic ambition of the mill city that built the great Amoskeag yard nearby, an assertion that a manufacturing town deserved great art.
The Zimmerman House, meanwhile, represents the mid-century optimism of a professional couple who wanted their ordinary lives shaped by extraordinary design. Visiting both in one trip pairs a grand civic institution with an intimate private masterpiece, both within a few minutes of each other.
Closest Boutels
The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.
Things to Do Near Manchester
Amoskeag Millyard and Millyard Museum
About 1 mile, a 5 minute drive
The mile-long red-brick mill complex that built Manchester, with a museum telling the story of its workers.
SEE Science Center
About 1 mile, a 5 minute drive
A hands-on science museum in a mill building, home to a giant LEGO model of the Amoskeag Millyard.
Downtown Manchester
About 1 mile, a 5 minute drive
Elm Street and its restaurants, theaters, and shops in the heart of the city.