With Silsbee I had gained considerable light on the practical needs of the American dwelling. Adler and Sullivan refused to build residences during all the time I was with them. The few that were imperative, owning to social obligations to important clients, fell to my lot out of office hours.  They would, of course, check up on them in good time.  Sullivan's own home on Lake Avenue was one of these, as was his southern house in Ocean Springs and the house next door for the Charnleys.

The city house on Astor Street for the Charnleys, like the others, I did at home evenings and Sundays in the nice studio draughting rooms upstairs at the front of the little Forest Avenue home.... In this Charnley city-house on Astor Street I first sensed the definitely decorative value of the plain surface, that is to say, of the flat plane as such.

In any case, the house shows the hand of both Sullivan and the emerging style of Wright.  The home was purchased 1986 by the archtectural firm of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill.  Restoration was completed in 1988 by John Eifler.  The home was later purchased by Seymour H. Persky and donated to the Society of Architectural Historians, who use the building as their headquarters.  Tours of the interior are available, see the Society's website for details.  Now let's go inside the house....