Edward C. Waller, Entrance Gates, Poultry House, and Stable
Date: 1901
Address: Auvergne Place at Lake Street
City: River Forest, Illinois
Accessibility: Private
Category: Utilitarian
Restoration status: Poultry house and stable demolished
Edward C. Waller was an early client and patron of Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright designed two apartment complexes for Waller in 1895, and remodeled his home in 1899. Waller subsequently commissioned the architect to design entrance gates, as well as a poultry house and stable on his River Forest property. The entrance gates are all that remain of this project. Block-like piers connected by wrought iron fencing and topped with gaslight lanterns mark the entrance to Waller’s former estate. The rugged texture of the rusticated limestone of the piers lends them a natural appearance that is tempered by the pylons’ strict rectilinearity and the smooth surfaces of their concrete bases and dressed-stone tops. Winslow Bros. Ornamental Ironworks—a company owned and operated by William Winslow, another of Wright’s clients and Waller’s friend and neighbor—may have fabricated the cast iron gates found at the entrance. The lanterns that now adorn and illuminate the entrance gate are reproductions that were wired for electricity.