Who Approved These Home Designs ‘In Honor Of’ Anne Frank and Harriet Tubman?
Look, Anne Frank and Harriet Tubman are important historical figures. We should honor them! But maybe not with cookie cutter suburban houses?
Abrazo Homes, a developer in New Mexico, has a website of the various floor plans that are available in its housing developments. Most of these homes have either bland names like The Jane, or The Pilsner. However, many of them have names inspired by real people.
Before I go any further, let me say that since its floor plans went viral earlier this week, Abrazo Homes has scrubbed all mention of its historical inspirations from its website and seemingly taken down at least one particularly egregious Zillow listing. There are still plenty of screenshots floating around social media, and you can look at the original listings using the Internet Archive’s Wayback machine, but it looks like it didn’t take long for Abrazo to see the error of its ways.
Anyway, let’s start with the Anne. It’s a nice house. 3–4 bedrooms. Kitchen island. Two separate garages, it looks like? Apparently, it’s the kind of house that Holocaust victim Anne Frank would have loved.
“In her diary, Anne Frank discussed her view of the seasonally changing tree,” the home’s now-deleted description reads. “In honor of her, we have designed our Anne plan to maximize the view, we feel would be suitable for Anne herself.” I mean … yes! I don’t disagree! A three-bedroom suburban house would have been suitable for Anne Frank!
Then, there’s the Harriet. This plan is named after Harriet Tubman, “the icon of American courage and freedom,” according to the description (again, now deleted, but accessible through the Wayback Machine). Of course. Black Americans still haven’t received reparations for slavery, but what better way to honor Tubman than with vaulted ceilings and a walk-in closet?
There are other homes that have more appropriate inspirations. The Audrey is named after Audrey Hepburn. Cool! The Julia is named after architect Julia Morgan. That’s fun! Architect and house. A house is a building, and architects design buildings. I see the connection there!
But with our culture still trying—and failing—to reckon with its long history of racism and antisemitism, it seems like even well-intentioned people have no idea how to actually honor those who have fallen victim to bigotry, or fought against it. We may never know whose decision these house names were—a clueless executive? A naive intern?—but hopefully Abrazo has learned from its mistake.
(featured image: Feverpitched/Getty Images)
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