Today was All About Frank Lloyd Wright and his Prairie-Style in Oak Park, Illinois

Tuesday, September 23, 2025

Chicago

was All About Frank Lloyd Wright and his Prairie-Style in Oak Park, Illinois

In this age of instant gratification, it is rare to come upon a situation in which one revels because one has waited a very long time to enjoy it. Today, I was in such a situation. My friend, Marilou, with whom I am staying in Chicago, made it possible for me to tick off another Travel To-Do Item from my Bucket List when we spent the day in Oak Park, Illinois.

Breakfast of Kings:

But my day began at 5.30 am when I awoke to teach my classes online in India. Two classes later, i.e. at 7.30 am, I was done and ready to go in for a shower. But first, I fixed myself a cup of decaff coffee as I was starving. Then, I did have my shower and returned to the kitchen to help ML fix what promised to be a right royal repast! We were having Avocado on Toast with a tomato garnish and then get this…smoked salmon with scrambled eggs on toast! Washed down with Illy Decaff Coffee (ML actually ground the beans she had purchased yesterday), we had such a filling breakfast that we would not be hungry until diner-time.

Then, it was time to take all the stuff we needed with us (Phone, museum addresses, etc.) and we were off.

Cruising on the Highway:

Yes, it is understandable that I am would doze on the highway as ML drove us to Oak Park, Illinois, about a 45 minute ride away. I am jetlagged (still on London time) and I wake up really early in the morning to continue to teach students in India. Good job all my work is over early in the day so that I have the rest of it to enjoy as I please. We were headed to Oak Park, Illinois, a really exclusive suburb of Chicago and one that has built a reputation for having the largest concentration of Frank Lloyd Wright houses in the world. So, yes, I was asleep and awoke just before we arrived in the town of Oak Park. ML had very thoughtfully used an app called Spot Hero to help find us a parking spot (as it is apparently impossible to do so in the town which is notorious for not offering Visitor Parking). We used GPS to arrive at the Parking Lot of Unity Church on Superior Street, just a couple of blocks away from the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio which we had driven out to see. By the time we walked to the venue, it was just ten minutes before 12 noon and since tours of the house are given once on the hour, it made sense to buy our tickets ($25 each) and join the one that would be leaving shortly This gave us five minutes to browse in the gift shop with the idea of returning later to browse some more.

A Word About Frank Lloyd Wright (And My Interest in Him):

Frank Lloyd Wright was born in 1867 in rural Wisconsin. He realized that he had a penchant for drawing and drafting rather early in life and so trained first under an architect named Silsbee and then under the famous Louis Sullivan in nearly Chicago. Although his formal training in Architecture at the University of Wisconsin did not last more than two years, his apprenticeship under established architects sufficed (in those days) to enable him obtain his license—and so he began is independent career. He designed more than 1,000 structures in the United States and endowed each with a distinctive style that came to be known as the ‘prairie style’. In general, this style is characterized by straight lines and sharp angles (no exterior curvatures, although he did have arched fireplaces inside) and dark colors in paint (inside and out with a particular fondness for sage green and amber). This makes the structures seem to rise from the earth itself and become congruous with the landscape surrounding it. FLW believed very much in blending the outdoors and indoors seamlessly. Hence, large windows opening out into the landscaped gardens was one of his traits.

I got to know about FLW during my training as a docent at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City where we have a FLW Living Room (which I used to show on my Highlights Tour of the Met). This was a home that belonged to the Towle family and was originally on the banks of Lake Minnetonka in Minnesota. It was removed and brought to the Met where it exhibits almost every one of the characteristics that denote this style. I also learned that this brilliant visionary, architect, designer, artist, interior decorator and landscape designer, had a concentration of his work in the Midwest although there are quite spectacular homes he created for his privileged and wealthy clientele in various parts of the USA. Of these, a house called Falling Water in Pennsylvania, is one that Llew and I had visited, several years ago. Its beauty and individuality have always remained with me.

So, when I realized that Oak Park, Illinois, has the largest number of prairie-style homes designed by the Master, I put it on my sight-seeing cards and had a willing partner in ML to explore them with me—as she had never ‘done’ these venues before or visited this town. How lucky was it to have someone who was equally eager to learn and discover about FLW as I was? When you have studied the work of an artist and start teaching people about his work, you are always enthusiasm about learning more about him, about walking in his footsteps and learning more about him. Hence, this excursion.

Discovering the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio:

Accordingly, we joined a group of about 20 visitors to see FLW’s Home and Studio and learn about it in the company of a docent named Susan. She has been giving tours at the House for a very long time and seemed to know a great deal. She began the tour in the garden in the front of the house so that we faced the sharply pedimented V-shaped roof (another characteristic of thi style). There, she gave us a brief bio-lesson on the architect and then invited us into the House.

As in the case of many of the world’s greatest and most distinctive architects (Antoni Gaudi in Barcelona, Spain, for instance, or Jean Nouvel in France, Le Corbusier in Switzerland or Charles Correa in India), there are many influences from which FLW drew—among them, Nature, the Arts and Crafts Movement, Ancient and Medieval History, Eastern art, especially Japanese, etc. Hence, as soon as we entered the little vestibule that leads to the rest of the home, we spied a plaster model of the Venus de Milo sculpture (the original is in the Louvre in Paris) and a sculptural frieze that runs along the ceiling line (this was inspired by the Temple of Pergamon in Greece which I had seen in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, Germany, where it now resides). From this space, we moved onto the Living Room where the first evidence of the unique furniture he designed was in evidence. These pieces were always huge (as his rooms were spacious), served multiple functions (for example, long and wide arm-rests on chairs to place drinks, books, etc.). We also saw the minimalist accessories that decorated the home—metallic or ceramic pieces, his fondness for Eastern arts very much in evidence in ceramic vases, statues of the Buddha, etc. Plus, there are scattered examples of ancient, classical art in evidence too—in addition to the model of Venus de Milo, there is the Winged Victory of Samotrace (also in the Louvre) which adorns another room in the house.

And so we went from one room to the next and ended up seeing the bedroom, the library, the childrens’ nursery—he had six children with his first wife--the bathroom, the dressing room, etc. (all upstairs) and the kitchen (downstairs). Everywhere we went, we were struck by the stark straightness of the lines (except for the fireplaces that were arched in red brick), there were no curves at all. There were also an abundance of woodwork—he had a fondness for oak, a very expensive building material—that is carved or cut in classical dentil molding patterns all around the public spaces. Colors on the wall are quiet, neutral with an emphasis on darker shades of green (sage, for example) or other earthy shades such as brown. This is the influence of Nature on his work. Floors are generally wooden or tiled. Furniture in each room was also designed by him--they show the typical Arts and Crafts style that one also finds in the work of the Pre-Raphaelites with whom FLW had much in common. There are also straight, angular designs in stained glass on the windows and above our heads in the tray ceilings that he lit from above so that they formed very Modernistic designs in keeping with the work of the artist Mondrian by whom he was also inspired.

The tour lasted a little over an hour by which time we had been made aware that there were other FLW Houses in the area that we could easily see from the outside. We could not enter any of them as they are now all privately owned. We decided to walk towards them and then stop for a little snack.

Little Walking Tour of the FLW Houses in Oak Park:

And so, we began our walking tour of the houses in Oak Park that surround this showpiece home of their creator. Suffice it to say that every single one of them is a masterpiece. They stand very close to each other—I suppose the idea of sustainability (even though it was not called by this name) at that time, did not allow even wealthy people to have sprawling property parcels unless they were deep in the rural areas. The gardens are also glorious and filled with the late blooms of summer (loads of gorgeous hydrangea, black-eyed Susan, red roses, hosta) and perfectly manicured in the small parcels of lawn that were visible in front. They all have sharply tapered roofs, woodwork on balustrades or railings around small Juliet balconies, trellised windows with small triangle-shaped stained glass panes, etc. They were enchanting and we took many pictures as we simply could not get enough of them.

Cake Lunch at Broken Tart:

By this time, we needed a sit-down and decided to walk towards the little market area of Oak Park where ML had found out about a bakery called Broken Tart. We took our rest there, selecting a wedge of Olive Oil Cake and a large slice of Ricotta Chocolate Chip Cake with a Passionfruit Glaze. We shared both pieces and had ourselves a tasty and very handsome little ‘lunch’. In fact, we had plans to follow this up with an ice-cream sundae next door at an old-fashioned ice-cream parlor called Peterson’s—but both of us were too full and decided to skip the ice-cream and enjoy it tomorrow in Wisconsin.

Off to See Hemingway’s Home:

ML had also found out that Ernest Hemingway’s home was also in Oak Park and was open to the public. This was his birth pace—he was born in 1899 and lived in this home till he was nine years old. It was just a couple of blocks from where we were and we found it on a quiet street with a large board proclaiming its pedigree. However, when we went up to the porch, we found that it was only open from Thursday-Sunday—so we were unable to get in. However, I peeped through the window and discovered that it was very much in the prairie style with a staircase in the lobby that went upstairs. The entire area is called the Hemingway District and after we picked our car, we drove a bit around it. This gave us a sense of the exclusivity of Oak Park, its small-town feel and its sense of general prosperity. Sadly, we will need to leave a tour of Hemingway’s Home for next time.

Getting a Private Tour of Unity Church:

We could well have picked up our car and gone right home, but we were told that FLW also designed the Unitarian Church—we were in the compound of Unity Church and we thought this was it. In fact, this church was designed by FLW’s contemporary, Gustav Maar, as private home for the Jacksons, a wealthy couple. We learned this from the Minister who opened the door to us after we’d rung the bell and gave us a tour of the place. Seriously, not much to see, but it was very kind of him indeed.

Back to Chicago To Do Some Shopping:

It was an uneventful drive back to Chicago. I’m lucky because it was only 6.30 by the time we got back and Marilou had called her sister, Sharon, to find out if she would drive me to the shops while ML got dinner organized. Accordingly, Sharon arrived and took me to Marshalls where I found great-looking Levi jeans that I thought I would buy. I also looked for clothes but found nothing that really grabbed my attention.

Dinner at ML’s:

Dinner at ML’s was ready and waiting for us, by the time we arrived home. All of us decided to have gimlets and with ML going out into her garden to pick basil and rosemary from her bushes, I fixed everyone very botanical gimlets with herbs and lime. They were incredibly delicious and refreshing and we sat down to do justice to ML’s Shepherd’s Pie and Thai Mango Salad—both of which were absolutely fabulous. In fact, we did such justice to it that among the three of us we finished the whole thing. Dessert was ML’s homemade vanilla ice-cream with a tablespoon of limoncello poured over it—what luxury!

VAnd on that happy note, we went off to bed. I had some work to deal with and with Llew on the line, I took care of it all. Our US taxes, our India taxes, issues to do with signing our new tenancy lease, etc. I managed to do it all and then go to bed, knowing I had to wake up early, the next morning, to teach a class.

It had been another amazing day and I have to say that I am having simply the best time in the company of really old friends.

Until tomorrow, see ya’…