Chicago and Forest Avenues: Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio (1889)
Wright's used his home and studio as a sort of living sandbox. He kept expanding the house to meet the needs of his growing family and business while playing with new ideas and designs.In 1889 Wright built the home with a $5,000 loan from his employer and mentor, Louis Sullivan. The Studio was built later in 1895 after Wright left Sullivan's employ to establish his own practice.Wright lived and worked here until 1909 when he left his wife and family after falling in love with the wife of a client, Mamah Borthwich Cheney. The home and studio remained with Wright's first wife Catherine ("Kitty") who over time split up the space to provide the family with rental income. Over the years the property fell into disrepair and it wasn't until 1972 that interest in it was renewed and in 1974 a 13 year rennovation to preserve it to it's 1909 status was undertaken. In 1976 it was named a National Historic Landmark.For more detailed information go here. For tickets to view the interior (highly recommended!) go here.
400 Forest: Dr. William H. Copeland House (1908/1909)
The reason this doesn't look particularly like one of Wright's Prarie School designs is that it was originally built as an Italianate house. Copeland commissioned Wright to first bulild a garage for the home in 1908. A year later Wright was again commissioned but this time to alter the exterior of the home by changing the roof line, adding the deep porches and replacing the entry way with design elements of his own.
318 Forest Ave.: Arthur Heurtley House (1902)
The Heurtley house embodies the horizontal plains of the Prairie. The long, deep, overhaning roof combined with the banding of the second story windows grounds the home firmly to the earth. Wright's obsession about making the home a reflection of the surrounding environment went as far as using two colors of mortar between the long Roman bricks. The motar used in the vertical joints closely matches the color of the bricks themselves giving the impression from afar that each course is a single layer of material. The mortar used in the horizontal joints is a lighter shade to emphazise the horixontal axis. The arched doorway is set asymetrically and blocked by a wall that gives passerbys the impression that access is not easy or permitted. Wright creates a "pathway of discovery" where the visitor must reorient themselves several times before being allowed entrance. This concept was first employed on this block in the Frank Thomas House at 210 Forest in 1901. The more recent owners of this spectacular home can be seen talking about it in the featured video.
333 Forest Ave.: Nathan G. Moore House (1895/1923)
In the midst of a depression Nathan More asked Wright to build a home for him in 1895. With few prospects Wright agreet to build Moore the English Tudor home he desired. It must have rankled Wright to see this decidedly un-Prairie School house so close to his home. In 1922 after a Christmas-time fire gutted the house Moore once again turned to his friend and neighbor for help. Wright proceeded to reimagine the home adding many exotic features which by that time had become characteristically FLW. The detailings on the porch recall Wright's facination with pre-Columbian motifs of his Californian period.
313 Forest Ave: Hills DeCaro House (1906)
It's complicated!This house was originally built in 1874 by William Grey just to the north of where it currently sits. Wanting his daughter Mary to live next door, Nathan Moore, the owner of the house now next door, moved the home and asked Wright to remodel it. Wright shifted the entry way 90 degrees to it's current location, removed the wood cladding and replaced it with stucco, created banded windows and added a deep overhanging roof line. Departing from his usual Prairie School hip roof, Wright for some reason gave this home a more steeply pitched room.A fire destroyed much of the house in 1974 and then owners the DeCaros rebuilt it to its current glory and restored some of its original Wright features discovered on a long lost blueprint.
6 Elizabeth Court: Mrs. Thomas H. Gale House (1909)
Some say that the Gale House is the precourser to Wright's more famous Fallingwater home. Certainly the broad horizontal porches give that impression.
238 Forest: Peter A. Beachy House (1906)
When Wright first encountered this site there was a large Gothic home sitting on the lot. Wright had it razed but kept the foundation upon which he built this home for banker Peter Beachy. Wright may have inherited the off-street entrance of the home, but aside from that this works stands on its own.Wright use of leaded glass is noticably missing on the street side of this home. In its place are large and in my opinion clumsy wooden windows with large wooden muntins. The quadruple gabled roof seems to detract from the overall presentation of the home but even if considering these as faults, the building still soars above its contemporaries.
210 Forest Ave.: Frank W. Thomas House (1901)
Wright got it right with this house!This early Prarie School home is, I think, the street's best example of the Prarie School of architecture. Let me count the ways...1) The entryway is public, yet discourages unwelcome visitors and embraces guests in its asymetric placement and "pathway to discovery".2) Built on a slab, the first floor is the "basement". Wright hated basements because they were dark, dank, and seldom used. Yet an above grade space dedicated to many of the same functions is a distinct improvement.3) The banding of windows on the second and third floors, with a generous assist from the hip roof give the building it's horizontality. 4) The leaded glass windows add needed light and much beauty yet keep prying eyes out. 5) The porch! OMG, the porch!!6) This is Wright's first fully stucco house. It's light, airy, flexible, durable. Kudos Frank!7) The green trim is an earthy reminder tying the building to its environment. I love this shade of green I call it "Frank Lloyd Wright Green". Iconic.
