Beginning in the 1930's Frank Lloyd Wright designed an important series of houses for families of widely varying means that came to be called Usonian, a term he coined to describe a philosophy of living in harmony with the land he envisioned as unique to the United States of North America, USONA.

These Usonian houses were revolutionary in their time and have influenced modern small house construction of all sizes and prices. The Gordon House was designed by Wright in the Usonian tradition for Evelyn and Conrad Gordon in 1957 and built in 1964. It was saved from demolition and moved to its permanent location at The Oregon Garden in Silverton, Oregon in 2002.