Fabyan Villa
It is incredibly easy to drive either in to or out of Geneva along Route 31 without ever really noticing the stately but aging and decaying flagstone wall that runs for several hundred yards along the east side of the road just south of town, let alone take a moment or two to ponder what […]
Unity Temple (1906)
Photo Credit: “Unity Temple” by Teemu008 is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. During the very late 1800s, Frank Lloyd Wright became increasingly innovative in terms of his architectural style; this period was the beginning of what came to be known as Wright’s Prairie style. Inspired by the low and mostly flat landscape of the Midwest, the Prairie style home, […]
Gridley House (Batavia, IL 1906)
Homes built in the United States during the Victorian Era (from 1837 to 1901, the length of the rule of Britain’s Queen Victoria) were overly ornate and the rooms were boxed in and confining… at least according to Frank Lloyd Wright — and he did not like them. Tours This house is privately owned and […]
P.D. Hoyt House (1906)
The Hoyt House was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and constructed in 1906. P.D. Hoyt introduced Wright to the Gridleys in Batavia, who commissioned a home to be built in 1906. The home was built by brothers August and Oscar Wilson. The Wilson brothers built many homes and buildings in the Geneva historic district and […]
Pettit Memorial Chapel (1906)
On a recent trek to Rockford, Illinois to tour the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home of Kenneth and Phyllis Laurent, we took a short detour in order to stop at the Belvidere Cemetery. Since 1847 the cemetery has served Belvidere and the surrounding area; there are former U.S. Congressmen, Civil War Generals and sports stars buried […]
The Rookery (1905)
Originally constructed in 1888, the Rookery Office Building is the oldest remaining high-rise in Chicago and was built by Daniel H. Burnham & J. W. Root. It’s name probably came from the previous building on this site which was an old city hall and was a favorite roosting spot of pigeons. The lobby was remodeled […]
F. B. Henderson House (1901)
That Frank Lloyd was a famous architect of the Prairie School style is a well-known fact. Contrary to what some might like to believe, he was not the solitary contributor of that style. Henry Webster Tomlinson was a lesser-known Prairie-School architect; he enjoyed a brief partnership with Frank Lloyd Wright, a fact that was first […]
Bradley House (1900)
The world is filled with ironies; one of the strangest being a little known fact that I ran across this morning while researching this story: when former Illinois Governor George Ryan placed a moratorium on executions and commuted all death sentences to life terms in January of 2003 for those who had committed heinous crimes, […]
George Smith House (1898)
The George Smith House last sold in March of 2023. View the listing on Zillow here. Photo Credit: “George W. Smith House” by Teemu008 is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. Wright’s Early Career Historic Oak Park, Illinois boasts 23 structures either designed or remodeled by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Of those 23, one is his original home and […]
Moore House (1895)
Born in Cherry Tree, Pennsylvania on January 26, 1853 to a minister and his wife, Nathan Grier Moore was, at various times in his life, a musician, inventor, writer, attorney, church elder and real estate expert. He was also of a mind to have a home built by Frank Lloyd Wright. After moving from Peoria […]