Frank Lloyd Wright built this house in Oak Park in 1889, shortly after marrying Catherine Tobin, and lived here for two decades while the couple raised six children. He added rooms in 1895 and a studio in 1898, where he and his associates designed dozens of buildings.
The complex records the birth of his style. The shingled house to the south still follows the Shingle and Queen Anne fashions of its day, while the studio to the north is in the new Prairie style. Inside, rooms gather around central fireplaces, and the studio centers on a double-height drafting room. Wright treated the building as a laboratory, often trying out ideas that were functional rather than purely decorative.
After years as apartments, it has been restored to its appearance in 1909, the year Wright moved out, and is open as a museum.
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