Frank Lloyd Wright’s first home and studio (1889-1909) was the birthplace of an architectural revolution. Wright used his home to explore design concepts that contained the seeds of his architectural philosophy. In his adjacent studio, Wright and his associates developed a new American architecture – the Prairie style. The historic district surrounding the Home and Studio has the greatest number of Wright-designed residences worldwide.
“On Christmas Morning we would run eagerly to the playroom fireplace where we had hung our stockings the night before. They were always filled with candy, spiced cakes, cookies, and surprise packages.”
- John Lloyd Wright
Wright’s son John recalled family holidays at the Oak Park Home – a tree in the playroom fully trimmed and surrounded by gifts, handmade cards by Wright’s sister Maginel, and stockings hung from the mantel, "the day flew by in its festive noise, everyone full of smiles."
You are invited to join the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust for a celebration of the season. Bring your…
Designing Preservation for the Future
GRADES 3-5
This summer, campers will envision the architecture of tomorrow as they investigate the lively history of Wright’s innovative Home and Studio. This camp will explore adaptive reuse, the life cycle of buildings, and restoration and renovation practices used in the real world. Campers will develop a new use for a pre-existing structure and create a model that showcases their solution. While working in Wright’s iconic Oak Park Studio, our campers will have the hands-on support of educators, artists, and architects throughout the week. Together,…
Designing Preservation for the Future
GRADES 6-8
This summer, campers will envision the architecture of tomorrow as they investigate the lively history of Wright’s innovative Home and Studio. This camp will explore adaptive reuse, the life cycle of buildings, and restoration and renovation practices used in the real world. Campers will develop a new use for a pre-existing structure and create a model that showcases their solution. While working in Wright’s iconic Oak Park Studio, our campers will have the hands-on support of educators, artists, and architects throughout the week. Together,…
Classroom Visits
The Education Department is doing limited in-person classroom visits on Thursdays between 8 am and 3 pm. Currently, the Trust is only able to serve schools in Oak Park, River Forest, or in Chicago city limits. If you fall outside of those districts, please consider a kit rental and virtual workshop with us! Teachers can fill out our Booking Form linked below for more information.
Fee: $150 for one class, $15 per class for additional classrooms
New Virtual Tours
Virtual tours of the Home and Studio in Oak Park and the Frederick C. Robie House in Chicago are now…
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Date: 1909
Address: 669 Fillmore Street, Gary, Indiana
City: Gary, Indiana
Accessibility: Private
Category: Residential
This residence was designed for Ingwald Moe, a successful contractor in Gary, Indiana, just three years after the city was founded as a center of American steel manufacturing. The house’s plan is an exact duplicate of Wright’s Charles A. Brown house (1905), in Evanston, Illinois. It was constructed during Wright’s travels in Europe, and its design may have been overseen by Marion Mahony.
Back to The Buildings…
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Date: 1908
Address: 603 Edgewood Place in River Forest, Illinois
City: River Forest, Illinois
Accessibility: Private
Category: Residential
Isabel Roberts served as office manager and bookkeeper at Wright’s Oak Park studio. Wright designed a residence for her and her mother, Mary Roberts, five years after she began her career in his office. The house has an expansive, two-story living room with a vaulted ceiling and tall, diamond-paned windows that are evocative of those found at the Walter V. Davidson house (…
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Date: 1896
Address: 5132 S Woodlawn Ave. Chicago, IL
City: Chicago, Illinois
Accessibility: Private
Category: Residential
As the 1890s came to a close Wright experimented with several elongated building plans that connected a series of distinct spaces along a continuous axis. The designs were markedly different from the square plans that characterized Wright’s earlier houses, and helped shape the plans of Wright’s mature Prairie buildings.
The Isidore Heller house…
This seven-night, eight-day journey starts with a taste of Rome’s ancient, classic, and modern architecture, including Paolo Portoghesi’s Casa Baldi and MAXXI by Zaha Hadid. Then, we proceed to the great city of Florence and the green and golden hills of Tuscany, visiting Fiesole and the Chianti wine region. Stay at historic hotels and enjoy curator-led tours, Roman and Tuscan cuisine, and breathtaking scenery on this special inaugural journey to Italy.
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Date: 1903
Address: 42 N. Central Ave., Chicago, IL
City: Chicago, Illinois
Accessibility: Private
Category: Residential
The J.J. Walser Jr. house, a moderately scaled residence that typifies Wright’s architecture of the period, is finished in light colored stucco with dark stained wood trim that creates a high level of contrast. A similar treatment is found on the interior of the residence and creates a sense of continuity. The design of Wright’s Barton house in Buffalo was based on that of the Walser house. The two structures…
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Date: 1891
Address: 1365 North Astor Street, Chicago, IL 60610
City: Chicago, IL
Accessibility: Public
Category: Residential
Links: http://www.sah.org/about-sah/charnley-persky-house
Restoration Status: Restored by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, 1986-1988, designated a Chicago landmark in 1972
The James Charnley house brings together the work of two of Chicago’s most progressive architects, Frank Lloyd Wright and his mentor, Louis Sullivan. The building stands as one of the few major residential commissions realized by Sullivan…
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Date: 1891
Address: 507 East Beach Rd., Ocean Springs, MS
City: Ocean Springs, Mississippi
Accessibility: Private
Category: Residential
Restoration Status: restored in 1930s; stable cottage demolished, suffered severe structural damage in Hurricane Katrina (2005); restoration undertaken 2008 - 2013.
As with Louis Sullivan’s cottage, James and Helen Charnley’s neighboring vacation home was probably envisioned by Sullivan and realized by Wright. Both structures feature a T plan with a veranda and living room that looked onto the…
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Date: 1909
Address: 562 Keystone Avenue, River Forest, Illinois
City: River Forest, Illinois
Accessibility: Private
Category: Residential
James Kibben Ingalls, the president of the Western Heater Dispatch railroad car company, commissioned Wright to design a house in 1909. The Ingalls residence is organized along a cross-axial plan that allowed for good ventilation and exposure to natural light—criteria defined by the clients, whose daughter suffered from and ultimately died of tuberculosis. On the ground floor…
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Date: 1907
Address: 5607 Cty. Rd. C, Spring Green, WI 53588
City: “Tan-y-deri”, Hillside, Wisconsin
Links: http://www.taliesinpreservation.org/
Category: Residential
Accessibility: Public
Wright designed the Porter house for his sister, Jane, and her husband, Andrew W. Porter, on a wooded site in Hillside, Wisconsin, not far from the Hillside Home School and Romeo and Juliet Tower. The setting justifies the house’s Welsh appellation, “Tanyderi,” which means “under the oaks,” and the various materials Wright…
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Date: 1899
City: Chicago, Illinois
Category: Residential
Restoration Status: Demolished
The Husser house marks a turning point in Wright’s career because of its truly radical plan. The majority of Wright’s earlier residential designs were square in plan with porches, porte-cocheres, libraries, or towers projecting like auxiliary appendages from one or more of their sides. In his design for the Husser house, Wright employs polygonal architectural volumes that emanate in multiple directions from various points along a central axis…
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Date: 1906
Address: 715 West Washington Avenue, South Bend, Indiana
City: South Bend, Indiana
Accessibility: Private
Category: Residential
The K.C. DeRhodes house, which was built after Wright’s first trip to Japan, reflects the importance of this pivotal journey, as well as the great talent of Wright’s draughtsman, Marion Mahony, who played a major role in the design of the house. Mahony’s most celebrated contribution to the project…