1336 Seabreeze Blvd
Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA

National Register of Historic Places - Doctor Willard Van Orsdel (W.V.) King House (King, Dr. W.V., House; BD-4226)

Statement of Significant:

The Doctor Willard Van Orsdel (W.V.) King House is significant at the local level under Criterion C in the area of Architecture as a significant early example of the Modern Movement in residential architecture in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Architecturally, the house is notable for its distinctive design and use of contemporary materials. It was designed in 1951 by locally well-known architect William Francis Bigoney, Jr., for Alan Morton, the contractor/builder of the house. Bigoney had studied at Harvard University when its Graduate School of Architecture was directed by architect Walter Gropius, and the house exhibits some of the principles that Gropuis had developed as one of the founders of the Bauhaus school of design in Germany during the 1920s and 1930s. These principles emphasized simplicity of form and the physical and visual integration of exterior and interior spaces to produce a dynamic effect not based on historical architectural antecedents. The house is significant under Criterion B as the residence of Colonel Willard Van Orsdel King, Ph.D. (W.V. King), a renowned medical entomologist who specialized in the study of mosquitoes. King was widely published and received world-wide recognition for his research into the life-cycle and control of the malaria-bearing insect. The house, which he occupied from 1953 until his death in 1970, is the property that is most strongly associated with King. After he retired from government service, he continued his important epidemiological research, working out of his home as a consultant.