You’re driving through the Fondren neighborhood in Jackson, Mississippi, looking for history, and you probably expect white columns or sweeping Southern porches. Instead, tucked away at 306 Glenway Drive, there’s a house that looks like a copper-topped spaceship landed in a swamp.
This is "Fountainhead."
Most people just call it the Frank Lloyd Wright house Jackson MS, but it’s officially the J. Willis Hughes House. It’s weird, it’s angular, and honestly, it’s one of the most significant pieces of architecture in the American South that almost nobody knows exists. For decades, it was a private mystery. But as of late 2025, everything changed.
What is Fountainhead, anyway?
Frank Lloyd Wright was 81 years old when he designed this place. Think about that. Most people are well into retirement by then, but Wright was busy drawing up a "Usonian" masterpiece for an oil businessman named J. Willis Hughes.
Hughes was a fan. He’d read Wright’s essays back in college during the 1920s and basically decided, "Yeah, that's the guy I want building my home." It took a while to get there—the commission didn't happen until 1948—but the result is a 3,558-square-foot structure that defies almost every "normal" rule of home building.
The name "Fountainhead" isn't a coincidence. It’s a direct nod to Ayn Rand’s famous novel. There’s a persistent rumor that the book's protagonist, Howard Roark, was based on Wright himself. Whether that’s 100% true is debated by historians, but Hughes loved the connection so much he named the house after it. Plus, there’s an actual fountain outside the bedroom wing that spills into a pool, so the name fits on a literal level, too.
The "No Right Angles" Rule
If you hate 90-degree corners, you’d love this house. Wright was obsessed with a grid of 30-60-90 triangles. This creates a floor plan made of rhombuses.
It sounds like a geometry headache, but in person, it creates this incredible "flow." The house is shaped like a Y.
- One wing is for the bedrooms.
- One wing is for the living area.
- The third wing is the carport.
It’s built from Tidewater red cypress—a wood that basically laughs at the Mississippi humidity because it’s so rot-resistant. The roof is solid copper. No sheetrock. No wallpaper. No paint. Just wood, glass, concrete, and stone. Wright even designed the furniture, including about 20 stools and various tables, so the owner wouldn't "ruin" his vision with a cheap sofa from a department store.
Why You Can Finally See It Now
For nearly 50 years, this was the private residence of an architect named Robert Parker Adams. He bought it in 1979 when it was falling apart and spent his life meticulously restoring it. Because it was his home, you couldn't just walk in. You had to peek through the trees from the street.
Sadly, Mr. Adams passed away in 2024. In a massive win for history buffs, the Mississippi Museum of Art (MMA) stepped in. In November 2025, they officially finalized the purchase of the house for about $1 million.
The plan? They’re turning it into a public museum.
This is a huge deal. It’s one of the few Wright-designed homes owned by a museum in the U.S., similar to how Crystal Bridges owns the Bachman-Wilson House in Arkansas. The MMA is currently working with restoration experts to make sure the cypress and copper are stable before they start running shuttle buses from their downtown campus to the site.
What Most People Get Wrong
People often think Frank Lloyd Wright houses are just "old buildings." They aren't. They were experiments in how humans should live.
At the J. Willis Hughes House, Wright was playing with "passive solar" design before that was even a buzzword. He used deep overhangs to keep the Mississippi sun from baking the interior while letting light in during the winter. He integrated a stream and a pond into the actual layout of the garden. It’s "organic architecture," meaning the house looks like it grew out of the hill rather than being plopped on top of it.
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Another misconception? That Wright built tons of houses in Mississippi. He didn't. He only has two extant (still standing) works in the state. One is the Charnley-Norwood House down in Ocean Springs. The other is this one. Two others—the Sullivan Bungalow and the Fuller House—were lost to time and hurricanes.
Actionable Tips for Your Visit
Since the transition from private home to public museum is still in progress as we head into 2026, you can't just show up and knock on the door. Here is how you actually handle a trip to see the Frank Lloyd Wright house Jackson MS:
- Check the MMA Website First: The Mississippi Museum of Art is the gatekeeper now. They will require advanced reservations for tours. Don't expect "walk-ins" to be a thing for a while.
- Stay in Fondren: If you're coming from out of town, stay in the Fondren neighborhood. It’s the artsy heart of Jackson. You can walk to great coffee at Sneaky Beans or grab dinner at Walker’s Drive-In, then take a quick five-minute drive to see the exterior of Fountainhead.
- Respect the Neighbors: Even though the museum owns it, Glenway Drive is a quiet residential street. Be cool. Don't block driveways or trample people's lawns trying to get a photo of the copper roof.
- Visit the Main Museum Too: The MMA downtown is where the shuttles will likely depart from. It’s worth seeing their permanent collection anyway—they have some of the best Southern art in the country.
Expect the official grand opening for regular tours to be announced sometime in mid-to-late 2026 once the preservation work is finished. For now, keep an eye on the museum's "Fountainhead" project updates. It’s a rare chance to see a Usonian home in its original, wooded context, exactly how Wright intended it to be seen.
Next Steps for Your Trip:
- Monitor the Status: Visit the Mississippi Museum of Art's official site and sign up for their newsletter to get the first alert when tour tickets go on sale.
- Read Up: Grab a copy of The Fountainhead or a biography of Wright’s later years. It’ll make the "Y-shaped" floor plan and the cypress walls make a lot more sense when you finally step inside.