 n 1889, newly wed Frank Lloyd Wright bought the lot at the
southeast corner of Forest and Chicago Avenues, in the rapidly growing western
Chicago suburb of Oak Park, to build a home for his new family. Wright
was a draftsman for the successful Chicago architectural firm of Adler and
Sullivan. He borrowed $5,000 from Louis Sullivan to purchase the lot and
build his first home, where he, his wife, and their six children lived for
twenty years. After he left Adler and Sullivan in 1893, Wright opened his
own architectural practice and later developed the Prairie style, a uniquely
American style of architecture.
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| Today, Forest Avenue
looks much as it did when Wright left Oak Park in 1911. In addition to
his own home and studio, Wright also built houses for six of his neighbors on
Forest Avenue, and six other homes within two blocks, the highest concentration
of Wright's work in the world. Other Oak Park architects were also
inspired by Wright's architecture, producing homes in their own versions of his
Prairie style. Forest Avenue also has fine examples of other popular
architectural styles of the turn of the century — Queen Anne, Stick,
Italianate, Shingle and Gothic. Join us for a virtual
tour of Frank Lloyd Wright's Forest Avenue. |
