The Thomas House
The Thomas house is the first Prairie house Wright designed in Oak Park. It is also the first of Wright's homes with an above ground basement; the family living quarters are on the second and third floors, with servants quarters and support areas on the first. Other classic Prairie features include the low, wide prairie chimney, low pitched hipped roof, wide overhanging eaves, and bands of windows. Like many other of Wright's Prairie houses, the entrance is circuitous – after passing through the entrance arch a flight of stairs to the left leads up to a landing, then another flight of stairs leads to the entrance at the second level. The room extending out toward Forest avenue is the dining room; the living room extends north towards an open terrace. Wright deliberately omitted any large windows looking south, towards the Emerson Ingalls rowhouses next door - he preferred to offer a view of Henry Austin's lush, naturalistic lot across Forest.
The Commission
The home was commissioned by James Rogers as a wedding present for his daughter and son in law, Susan and Frank Thomas. It was built on the site of the Grace Episcopal Church, which was relocated to Lake Street in 1901. It is one of the few buildings constructed during Wright's brief partnership with Webster Tomlinson (1901-1902). In 1922, the owners commissioned an addition by Talmadge and Watson at the rear of the building, designed with similar materials and styling to the original house. In 1936 the Thomas' applied for a building permit to cover the exterior walls with wood shingles; this was probably due to the constant costly maintenance that the original stucco exterior required. The house was restored to its original appearance in the mid 1970's.
Restoration
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This is the Thomas house in the early 1970s, after extensive exterior renovations have rendered it virtually unrecognizable as a Wright home. Wright's architecture was not appreciated by the general public in the 50s and 60s, so alterations to Wright's houses to make them easier to maintain, or more liveable were sometimes done. Most of these changes were done by the Thomases themselves, who owned the house until the early 1960s.
The original high-maintenance stucco exterior has been covered over by cedar shingles, the terrace to the north of the house has been enclosed, the walls surrounding the entranceway have been reduced in height, perhaps completely replaced. At the time this photo was taken the house was for sale. It had been on the market for over 6 months at this point, prospective buyers were few and far between, and the concern among local preservationists was that it might be sold to someone who would then demolish it and replace it with an apartment building.
Fortunately, that is not what happened. The people who purchased the Thomas house eventually did a complete restoration, returning it to Wright's original 1901 design.
Research for this house © Jack Lesniak, 2010. Do not reproduce without permission.
Photos
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