Nathan G. Moore House
Date: 1895
Address: 333 Forest Avenue, Oak Park, Illinois
City: Oak Park, Illinois
Accessibility: Private
Category: Residential
Restoration Status: Second and third stories destroyed by fire in 1922, rebuilt in 1923 by Frank Lloyd Wright
Located just a block from Wright’s own home in Oak Park, the Moore house stands in contrast to Wright’s evolving philosophy of design. Responding to the desires of his client, attorney Nathan Moore, Wright drew on traditional English architectural models for design of the house. Its upper stories were thus half-timbered in the Tudor style, and large, steeply pitched roofs gave the building a medieval appearance. Not content to simply imitate historical design styles, however, Wright bucked convention by adding a porch at the front of the house. After a fire in 1922, he was asked to redesign the building’s defunct second and third stories. Wright’s modifications, which were implemented in 1923, lent the house an increasingly idiosyncratic appearance.