Original Owner: Laura Gale
Address: 6 Elizabeth Court
Architect: Frank Lloyd Wright
Year Built: 1909
   
Designed in 1904 but not built until 1909, this small house is perhaps the most abstract of Wright's Prairie designs.  The flat roof, cantilevers, and interpenetration of vertical and horizontal volumes point the way to the direction Wright's later work was to take.  The chimney and balconies are constructed of plaster rather than an alternate material, making them an integral part of the whole.  The cantilevered balconies open the interior to the outside, but at the same time give a sense of shelter from the inside.  The cruciform plan allows light to enter the home from many different directions.  The interior features an open floor plan with roman brick fireplace in the living room, and 5 bedrooms upstairs.

Frank Lloyd Wright was long time friend of the Gale family.  In 1892, he designed a house for Thomas and Laura Gale at 1019 Chicago Ave.  Later he designed a summer cottage for their use in Whitehall, Michigan.  Just prior to the construction of this house the Gales lived in the white home directly to the west at4 Elizabeth Court.  This property was originally a side lot of their house, which accounts for the rather small lot size.  The delay between the design and construction of the house may have resulted from Mr. Gales premature illness and death in 1907, aged 41.  Mrs. Gale then decided to go ahead with the construction.  While the house was being built, Mrs. Gale was staying at her Wright-designed cottage in Michigan.  She received news from her friends in Oak Park telling her that she should come back to see this "terrible thing that Wright was building" on her lot.  But Mrs. Gale apparently had a different opinion, she lived here with two of her children until her death in 1943.