title: Marden House
text: # Marden House
  
  The Marden House is a residence in McLean, Virginia designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. It is located just off Chain Bridge Road and overlooks the Potomac River. Also known as "Fontinalis," it is named after Luis Marden (1913–2003), a writer, photographer, and explorer for National Geographic. It was designed by Wright in 1952 and was completed in 1959 at a cost of $76,000.
  
  The spot had caught Marden's eye in 1944 when he and his wife and had been fishing along the Potomac. After purchasing a plot of land, Marden continued the correspondence he had maintained with Wright since 1940, asking the architect to design a home for him. It was not until 1952 that the designs finally came.
  
  After Marden moved to a nursing home in 1998, the house was purchased by Jim Kimsey, co-founder of AOL, in 2000 for $2.5 million.
  
  