The Currie House stands as a highly proficient and personal expression of 1960s Modernism, an architectural style influenced by the International Style of earlier decades. A rare instance where the architect was his own client, the house was designed in 1960 by Leonard J. Currie, head of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute school of architecture, for his own residence in the Montgomery County town of Blacksburg. Currie was a student and former colleague of both Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer, leading proponents of the International Style. He incorporated into his design their penchant for strong horizontality and large glass areas. Competed in 1961, the Montgomery County house won American Institute of Architects awards in 1962 and 1982. Currie departed somewhat from his mentors’ industrial character by using a spreading hipped roof, a feature reminiscent of the works of Frank Lloyd Wright.
Many properties listed in the registers are private dwellings and are not open to the public, however many are visible from the public right-of-way. Please be respectful of owner privacy.
Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Programs
DHR has secured permanent legal protection for over 700 historic places - including 15,000 acres of battlefield lands
DHR has erected 2,532 highway markers in every county and city across Virginia
DHR has registered more than 3,317 individual resources and 613 historic districts
DHR has engaged over 450 students in 3 highway marker contests
DHR has stimulated more than $4.2 billion dollars in private investments related to historic tax credit incentives, revitalizing communities of all sizes throughout Virginia