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As the first director of the Bauhaus, Gropius was concerned with combining modern technologies with consumer needs, while placing equal emphasis on architectural integrity and decorative arts.

Gropius and his family came to the United States after a three-year stay in London, where they had moved to avoid the Nazi regime. Gropius came to Massachusetts to accept a teaching position at Harvard University‘s Graduate School of Design. Fellow architect and prominent Bostonian Henry Shepley convinced philanthropist Helen Storrow to provide land and fund the design and construction of a home for Gropius. Gropius designed the home in 1937; local builder Casper J. Jenney built it in 1938. Gropius used his new home as a showcase for his Harvard students as well as an example of modernist landscape architecture in America. He chose the area because of its proximity to Concord Academy which his daughter Ati was slated to attend. It remained Gropius’s home from 1938 until his death in 1969.

Marcel Breuer, a fellow architect and friend of the Gropius family, came to the United States shortly after the Gropiuses, also to become part of the Harvard design faculty. Helen Storrow provided a neighboring plot of land to Breuer where he could showcase his design philosophies. Gropius and Breuer assisted one another in the construction of their homes, completing their dwellings in 1938 and 1939, respectively. The Gropius House continues to have Breuer furniture on display. The house also contains works by Eero Saarinen, Joan Miró, and Herbert Bayer that they gave as gifts to Walter Gropius.