Neighborhood Tour Talking Points

Please stay on the public sidewalks and be mindful of others using the sidewalk and homeowners wishing to enter or exit their driveways.

Begin walk by heading west on Chicago Avenue to the first stop.

Stop 1: Robert Parker House at 1019 Chicago Ave., Thomas Gale House at 1027 Chicago Ave. and Walter Gale House at 1031 Chicago Ave. (This is treated as one stop, not three separate stops.)  All three of these houses were designed by Wright in the early 1890’s  They are referred to as his “bootleg houses,” because he designed them while working for Adler and Sullivan, which was a violation of his agreement with his employer.  Wright designed them in his home office, in what is now the boys’ and girls’ bedrooms.  They are still Victorian in style, but they show that Wright was learning about geometric simplicity.  On the Walter Gale House (1031 Chicago Ave.), notice the windows grouped in a band around the turret. Wright called these windows “light screens,” and this concept will figure prominently in his future Prairie designs.

Walk back east on Chicago and turn right at Forest Ave. Start on the east side of Forest Ave.

Stop 2: William Copeland House, 400 Forest Ave.  Constructed in 1875, the Copeland house was built in the Italianate style.  Wright remodeled the garage in 1908, and house in 1909.  He eliminated decorative elements from the house’s façade and enlarged its eaves. On the interior, he introduced dark wood stringcourses, which make the tall-ceilinged rooms appear lower.  Wright replaced the steeply pitched roof of the detached garage with a lower, hipped roof more characteristic of those found on his Prairie-style designs. He also added a ground floor shop and converted the garage’s second story to an apartment with a hall, living room, bedroom, and closet.

Continue South on Forest to the next house

Stop 3: Arthur B. Heurtley House, 318 Forest Ave  Built in 1902  The material Wright used for the Heurtley house is a Roman brick. Notice how the long, thin earthen-red bricks are laid in projecting and recessed courses to emphasize the horizontal line of the low hipped roof that shelters the house.  The long thin band of leaded glass casement windows forms what Wright called a "light screen." The exquisite decorative glass provides ornamentation and a measure of privacy to the interior.  The chimney is low and broad, and its position tells you that the fireplace is in the center of the house. The hearth is the spiritual core of Wright's houses, the center of family life.  Wright designed every aspect of the Heurtley house, from the building itself down to the furniture and rugs of the interior.

Carefully cross Forest to the West side of the street for the next 2 houses. Stop 4: Nathan Moore House, 333 Forest Avenue  Nathan Moore, an attorney, insisted on an English Tudor-style home, which Wright designed and built for him in 1895.  The original house was almost completely destroyed by a fire on Christmas Eve in 1922, and Wright remodeled the house in 1923.  Looking at the Moore house from Forest Avenue you can see busy surfaces, a variety of shapes and planes, and an expansive porch make for an intriguing entrance.  Wright brought a wide variety of influences to his remodeling. He was particularly interested in Mayan architecture at the time and, here, he used Mayan motifs as he had in the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo and the Hollyhock House in Los Angeles.  By placing the house on the northern edge of the lot, Wright was able to open the residential part of the house to a large garden and expose it to warm southern light while respecting Moore’s request to situate his in-home-office on the street-facing north side of the house.

Walk South on Forest to the next house.

Stop 5: Hills-DeCaro House, 313 Forest Avenue  Mary Hills was the daughter of Nathan Moore, whose house is located to the right of this one. Moore purchased the property and commissioned Wright to renovate the existing residence in 1906, several years after Moore’s own home was completed.  In this house we see the influence of Japanese design on Wright’s work. The roofline, with its irregular levels, emulates Japanese temple forms.  One of Wright’s inspirations for this design may have been the “Ho-o-den,” the Japanese pavilion at the World’s Columbian Exposition, or World’s Fair, held in Chicago in 1893.  The small, free-standing garden structure in the side yard to the right was relocated here from the Exposition where it served as a ticket booth.  This house was restored by Tom and Irene DeCaro in 1975, not long after the restoration of Wright’s Home and Studio began.

Carefully cross Forest to the East side of the street. Walk South to next house.

Stop 6: The Charles A. Purcell House, 300 Forest Avenue  Built in 1893  Designed by an unknown architect with an emphatically vertical appearance, this building stands in sharp contrast to Wright’s Heurtley House.  Constructed in a style that was very popular during the 1880’s and 90’s. Often referred to as “Queen Anne,” the style is characterized by asymmetrical façades, a bold color palette, and a rich variety of surface finishes and ornamentation.  Dormers and a large conical turret topped with a finial create a varied roof line.  The structure is finished in clapboard siding, and the floor levels are delineated by thick stringcourses.

Proceed South on Forest to next stop. Stop 7: Peter A. Beachy house, 238 Forest Avenue  Designed in 1906  The Beachy House is positioned at a right angle to the street. By placing it at the northern edge of the lot, Wright opened the right side of the house onto the park-like setting of the grounds.  The porch that extends from the south end of the house blurs the boundaries between interior and exterior space. It was designed to take advantage of the breeze, the lawns, and warm southern exposure.  Typical of Wright’s Prairie buildings, the front door is unobtrusively tucked away on the north side of the house.  The brick used in the Beachy House is clinker brick, not the thinner, longer Roman brick found at the Heurtley house.

Proceed South on Forest to next stop.

Stop 8: Frank Thomas House, 210 Forest Avenue  Built in 1901  Considered the first of Wright’s Prairie houses in Oak Park.  To emphasize the building’s horizontal character, Wright used almost the entire width of the lot and extended the floor space with an “T”-shaped plan. This arrangement took advantage of the afternoon light and the view of the woods across the street.  Wright integrated the interior with the exterior through the use of ribbon windows that create a wall of glass. Featuring gold leaf and intricate, flower-like motifs, the windows are among Wright’s most exquisite. They open the interior space to the natural environment.

Walk North on Forest to Elizabeth Court. Walk East on Elizabeth Court to the next house.

Stop 9: Laura Gale House, 6 Elizabeth Court  Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1905 and built in 1909  Notice how Wright used the high walls flanking the front corners of the house. They form a complex pattern of intersecting planes and levels delineated by wood trim. The design is often compared to Wright’s 1935 masterpiece, Fallingwater, located near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  One of the most noticeable characteristics of this house is its modest size in comparison to the other houses on this tour. Wright had to work within a limited budget when designing this house, yet he created a functional and intriguing abstract structure.  The leaded glass is minimal, and the roof is flat. These qualities would influence a generation of European architects and designers who discovered Wright’s work through the Wasmuth Portfolio, published in Germany in 1910. This two-volume monograph of Wright’s buildings and projects featured many of the Prairie style buildings designed at Wright’s Oak Park Studio.

Continue East on Elizabeth Court to Kenilworth. Carefully cross Kenilworth to the East side of the street for the next house. Stop 10: Benjamin P. Horton House, 322 N. Kenilworth Ave  1912 – E. E. Roberts  Roberts built 300 houses in Oak Park; Wright built about 30.  Roberts gave clients what they wanted, Wright gave them what he thought they needed.  Prairie style home  Prairie elements: Unified massing and full-width, hip-roofed front porch with square supports.  The wood trim separates the first and 2nd floors and prominent limestone sills emphasizing the horizontal.

Walk South on Kenilworth to the next house.

Stop 11: Stop 8 – Walter Gale residence – 312 N. Kenilworth Ave. – 1905  1905 – Handy and Cady  This Colonial Revival style shows formality and refinement.  Symmetrical exterior reflects interior symmetry.  Note the classical details and their symmetry: entrance, Ionic pilasters at corners, cornices, and dentil moldings. Continue South on Kenilworth to Lake Street. Cross Lake Street and arrive at Unity Temple.