The Last Prairie House
[Harry S. Adams House (1913) Frank Lloyd Wright, architect /Image & Artwork: designslinger]
In 1889 a young architect named Frank Lloyd Wright built a house for himself and his wife
in a Chicago suburb called Oak Park. In 1895 Wright built a studio adjacent to the house and Oak Park eventually became home to more Wright structures than anywhere else in the world. It still is. The Harry S. Adams house was built in 1913 not far from the architect's home and studio, and would be the last building Wright would design in the suburb, and his last Prairie Style house.
[Harry S. Adams House, 710 Augusta Street, Oak Park, IL /Image & Artwork: designslinger]
When Adams asked Wright to develop preliminary drawings for the home in 1911,
the architect was no longer living in Oak Park having left the suburb and his family four years earlier with a former client's wife. It was quite the scandal and Wright had relocated his office to downtown Chicago. Adam's rejected several of Wright's designs because of the cost and by the time they came to an agreement on the price of $13,000 the design Wright produced was stripped down to the very essence of what put the prairie in Prairie Style. The home has been called by some as one of Wright's best.
[Adams House, September 30, 2009 /Image & Artwork: designslinger]
In the mid-1960s the house was purchased by doctors Harold and Doris Blumenthal. For
the next 40+ years the couple lovingly maintained Wright's last Prairie house which was designated an Oak Park landmark in 2002.
[The horizontal Prairie Style /Image & Artwork: designslinger]
I was fortunate enough to have walked through the home years ago. In the mid-1970s
the National Trust for Historic Preservation took over Wright's former home and studio. The place was a wreck. I know because a friend of mine knew an instructor at the School of the Art Institute who lived in one of the apartments cut out of the former studio space. I can distinctly remember the green shag carpeting!
At the same time the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation began a tour program called Wright
Plus. The tour included homes designed by Wright and fellow Prairie School practitioners. It was either the second or third year of the tour (maybe it was the first!) that the Adams House was included on the itinerary. There were maybe 8 of us standing in line waiting our turn to see the interior back before the Wright brand entered popular culture. It's hard to believe, but back then Wright wasn't quite the pop icon he is today.
I haven't been on a Wright Plus tour in years. The last one was probably in the mid-80s.
By that time the crowds were huge, the wait to gain entry was much longer, and the joy of the smaller scale, less populated tours of just a decade earlier was gone. I recently read that the tours are sell-outs and have been for years, tickets are on sale now for May, 2011!
See our previous Frank Lloyd Wright posts at: Wright A Wrong and Taliesin.
Posted by designslinger at 6/29/2010 2:24 AM 
Categories: Architecture, History, Architects, Preservation
Tags: Harry S. Adams House Prairie School Oak Park Frank Lloyd Wright
Categories: Architecture, History, Architects, Preservation
Tags: Harry S. Adams House Prairie School Oak Park Frank Lloyd Wright
I love the detail shot of the gutter. It's maddening how long that poor gutter has to travel horizontal to pair up with the wall. Those Prairie style overhangs are incredible.
There's a house in Villa Park on Villa Ave that takes a strong inspiration from the Adams House. However, it lacks the distinct roof overhangs from the true Prairie School style.
Funny you should mention the gutters. Wright made it pretty well known how much he hated them and their partners the downspout. Probably one of the reasons (among several) why his houses are so notorious for leaks and water damage.
I'm a bit confused, was the green shag carpeting in the Adams House or Wright's Home and Studio???? Either way -- what a travesty! Another question, is the Adams House the one located across the street from the house that served as Ernest Hemmingway's family's second home (the one that isn't the house museum)?
The carpeting was in the upper portion of what had been Wright's former two-story drafting room. He filled in that space to create rental apartments as income providers for his wife and children when he left them in Oak Park for Wisconsin and Mamah Cheney. Not sure about the Hemingway house. Haven't heard about the second family home.
You might want to check out the Emil Bach house, designed in the Prairie Style by FLW, and built in 1915 (located at 7415 N.Sheridan Road in Rogers Park).
The owners have expressed a desire to have copies of the original stained glass windows installed, as they possess the original FLW drawings.
Truly enjoy your site!
Know the Bach house well. Definitely a future post. And thanks for the visit and the compliment - both are much appreciated.