Prairie School is a late 19th- and early 20th-century architectural style, most common in the Midwestern United States. The style is usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped in horizontal bands, integration with the landscape, solid construction, craftsmanship, and discipline in the use of ornament. Horizontal lines were thought to evoke and relate to the wide, flat, treeless expanses of America's native prairie landscape.
The Frank Lloyd Wright/Prairie School of Architecture Historic District is a residential neighborhood in the Cook County, Illinois village of Oak Park, United States. The Frank Lloyd Wright Historic District is both a federally designated historic district listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places and a local historic district within the village of Oak Park. The districts have differing boundaries and contributing properties, over 20 of which were designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, widely regarded as the greatest American architect.
John Shellette Van Bergen was an American architect born in Oak Park, Illinois. Van Bergen started his architectural career as an apprentice draftsman in 1907. In 1909 he went to work for Frank Lloyd Wright at his studio in Oak Park. At Wright's studio he did working drawings for and supervised the Robie House and the Mrs. Thomas Gale House. Van Bergen designed prairie style homes in the Chicago area, mostly in the suburbs of Oak Park and River Forest. His home designs are recognized as excellent examples of Prairie style architecture and several are listed as local landmarks. A few of his homes are listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
The Laura Gale House, also known as the Mrs. Thomas H. Gale House, is a home in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois, United States. The house was designed by master architect Frank Lloyd Wright and built in 1909. It is located within the boundaries of the Frank Lloyd Wright-Prairie School of Architecture Historic District and has been listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places since March 5, 1970.
The Frank W. Thomas House is a historic house located at 210 Forest Avenue in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois, United States. The building was designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1901 and cast in the Wright-developed Prairie School of Architecture. By Wright's own definition, this was the first of the Prairie houses - the rooms are elevated, and there is no basement. The house also includes many of the features which became associated with the style, such as a low roof with broad overhangs, casement windows, built-in shelves and cabinets, ornate leaded glass windows and central hearths/fireplaces. Tallmadge & Watson, a Chicago firm that became part of the Prairie School of Architects, added an addition to the rear of the house in 1923.
The Peter A. Beachy House is a home in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois that was entirely remodeled by architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1906. The house that stands today is almost entirely different from the site's original home, a Gothic cottage. The home is listed as a contributing property to the Frank Lloyd Wright-Prairie School of Architecture Historic District, which was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
The George W. Smith House is a home in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois, United States designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1895. It was constructed in 1898 and occupied by a Marshall Field & Company salesman. The design elements were employed a decade later when Wright designed the Unity Temple in Oak Park. The house is listed as a contributing property to the Ridgeland-Oak Park Historic District which joined the National Register of Historic Places in December 1983.
The Thomas H. Gale House, or simply Thomas Gale House, is a house located in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois, United States. The house was designed by famous American architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1892 and is an example of his early work. The house was designed by Wright independently while he was still employed in the architecture firm of Adler & Sullivan, run by engineer Dankmar Adler and architect, Louis Sullivan; taking outside commissions was something that Sullivan forbade. The house is significant because of what it shows about Wright's early development period. The Parker House is listed as contributing property to a U.S. federally Registered Historic District. The house was designated an Oak Park Landmark in 2002.
The William H. Copeland House is a home located in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois, United States. In 1909 the home underwent a remodeling designed by famous American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The original Italianate home was built in the 1870s. Dr. William H. Copeland commissioned Wright for the remodel and Wright's original vision of the project proposed a three-story Prairie house. That version was rejected and the result was the more subdued, less severely Prairie, William H. Copeland House. On the exterior the most significant alteration by Wright was the addition of a low-pitched hip roof. The house has been listed as a contributing property to a U.S. Registered Historic District since 1973.
The Oscar B. Balch House is a home located in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois, United States. The Prairie style Balch House was designed by famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1911. The home was the first house Wright designed after returning from a trip to Europe with a client's wife. The subsequent social exile cost the architect friends, clients, and his family. The house is one of the first Wright houses to employ a flat roof which gives the home a horizontal linearity. Historian Thomas O'Gorman noted that the home may provide a glimpse into the subconscious mind of Wright. The Balch house is listed as a contributing property to a U.S. federally Registered Historic District.
Edwin H. Cheney House (1903) located in Oak Park, Illinois, United States, was Frank Lloyd Wright's design of this residence for electrical engineer Edwin Cheney. The house is part of the Frank Lloyd Wright–Prairie School of Architecture Historic District. A brick house with the living and sleeping rooms all on one floor under a single hipped roof, the Cheney House has a less monumental and more intimate quality than the design for the Arthur Heurtley House. The intimacy of the Cheney house is due to the building not being a full story off the ground and being sequestered from the main street by a walled terrace. In addition, its windows are nestled between the wide eaves of the roof and the substantial stone sill that girdles the house.
The Francis J. Woolley House is located in Oak Park, Illinois, United States, a Chicago suburb. The house was designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1893. The Queen Anne style home is reflective of Wright's early designs for lower-cost, more affordable housing. The Woolley House is similar to the trio of homes in Oak Park that are widely known as the "bootleg houses." The design is heavily influenced by Wright's first teacher, Joseph Silsbee, and the Arts and Crafts movement. The house is listed as a contributing property to a local and federal historic district.
The F.F. Tomek House, also known as The Ship House or as the Ferdinand Frederick and Emily Tomek House, is a historic house in Riverside, Illinois. It is prominent example of Prairie School design by Frank Lloyd Wright. Designed in 1904 and construction finished in 1906, the Tomek House is a well-preserved example of the style. In addition to being a good example of the Prairie style, the Tomek house documents the development of the style, which reached its clearest expression in Wright's Robie House in 1908. It is included in the Riverside Historic District and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1999.
The Hiram Baldwin House, also known as the Baldwin-Wackerle Residence, is a Frank Lloyd Wright designed Prairie school home located at 205 Essex Road in Kenilworth, Illinois. Built in 1905, the house was part of Wright's primary period of development of the Prairie School. The house has a centrifugal floor plan with a north–south axis and wings containing the living room and stair tower. The exterior is stucco with wood stripping, and the roof is low-pitched, both typical features of the Prairie School. The living room uses its fireplace as a focal point and has curved walls with casement windows. The house's garden space is divided by wooden screens to form courtyards, an element inspired by Japanese architecture. The house is Wright's only residential work in Kenilworth.
The Warren Hickox House, also known as the Hickox/Brown house, is a 1900 Frank Lloyd Wright house in the Prairie School style in Kankakee, Illinois, United States. The house design is similar to two articles Wright published in the Ladies' Home Journal.
The Ridgeland–Oak Park Historic District is a historic district in Oak Park, Illinois that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. It includes 1558 contributing buildings over 539 acres (218 ha).
First Congregational Church of Austin, also known as Greater Holy Temple of God in Christ, is a historic church at 5701 West Midway Place in Chicago, Illinois. The church was built in 1905 for a Congregational assembly; it was later used by Seventh-Day Adventist, Roman Catholic, and Church of God in Christ congregations. A Chicago building permit was issued on August 15, 1905 according to the Chicago Tribune of August 16, 1905. Architect William Eugene Drummond, a student of Louis Sullivan and a sometime employee of Frank Lloyd Wright, designed the church in the Prairie School style; it is an unusual example of a Prairie School church and influenced Wright's Unity Temple which was designed after the original church burned on June 4, 1905. The one-story building consists of a tall central section with massive piers and a smaller section to either side. The entrance is recessed in the base of the central section; the doorway features lintels and posts that continue the building's rectilinear emphasis. Leaded glass windows are recessed in the spaces between the central section's piers.
The Curtis Yelland House is a historic building located in Mason City, Iowa, United States. Frank Lloyd Wright associate William Drummond designed this Prairie School style house, completed in 1910. The house features a strong horizontal emphasis, broad hip roofs, board-and-batten siding, stucco on the upper-story, and a centrally located fireplace and chimney round which the open plan interior revolves. The main entry is on the side of the house. The only entry to the front porch is from the living room. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. The house suffered a devastating fire in 2008, and was almost torn down. However, developer Jeff Tierney bought the property and restored the house in 2010.
The Ouilmette North Historic District is a residential historic district in northeastern Wilmette, Illinois. The district includes 911 contributing buildings; all are houses except for two churches, Trinity United Methodist Church and the Community Church of Wilmette. The southern half of the district was originally part of the Ouilmette Reservation, an Indian reservation which was sold to developers and became the original village of Wilmette in 1872. Development in the district began after the village's incorporation and continued through World War II, with most new construction happening in the early twentieth century. The district includes examples of Queen Anne architecture from the late nineteenth century, Prairie School architecture from the first two decades of the twentieth century, and revival style architecture from the 1920s. Its Prairie School architecture is especially notable as it contains works by William Eugene Drummond and John S. Van Bergen, two early Prairie School architects who practiced with Frank Lloyd Wright.
The River Forest Historic District is a national historic district encompassing much of the village of River Forest, Illinois. The district includes 830 buildings, most of which are houses as the village is almost entirely residential. The oldest structure in the district is the 1831 Bickerdike and Noble sawmill, the first permanent structure built by European settlers in River Forest; residential development began in the mid-nineteenth century and continued through the 1930s. The district has a considerable number of Prairie School houses, including a rare example of an entire block of small-scale Prairie homes. Several works by Frank Lloyd Wright are within the district, including the Winslow House and stable, the Chauncey L. Williams Residence, the Isabel Roberts House, the J. Kibben Ingalls House, and the River Forest Tennis Club. The Prairie School architects William Eugene Drummond, Tallmadge and Watson, Purcell & Elmslie, John S. Van Bergen, and Spencer & Powers designed homes in the district as well. Examples of other popular architectural styles, most prominently Italianate and Classical Revival, can also be found in the district.
