Frank Lloyd Wright’s George Smith House, located at 404 Home Avenue in Oak Park, was in need of saving in January 2023
Built in 1898, the Shingle-style home had been in the same family for 60 years, and need some updates and maintenance to make it shine. When it was listed for sale for $595,000, Barbara Gordon and John Waters from the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy visited the home and offered renderings of what the home could look like if the next owner spruced it up.
FLWBC Executive Director Barbara Gordon compared the home to Wright’s Parker House, built in 1892 in Oak Park and the Bagley House built in Hinsdale, noting that the young Wright was experimenting with different styles at the time. Waters emphasized the need to preserve original details in the living and dining room such as the diamond-paned windows, Roman brick fireplace and built-in shelving units.
The home’s extensive needs, along with its one bathroom and small kitchen, deterred a few buyers, but after several months on the market it found a buyer and eventually sold for $485,000 in March 2023.
The couple was drawn in by the home’s architectural significance, but was not sure they were ready to take on a big project. The two have asked not to be named to protect their privacy.
One of the owners, an architect, had studied architecture at the School of Architecture at Taliesin and was determined to visit the house during their search for a home to purchase in Oak Park.
His husband was not so keen on the idea.
“In early 2023, after we saw the house, he said, ‘I think we should do it,’ and I said, ‘No, definitely not.’”
“It was this brown, squat house with two window eyes,” the owner added. “We heard from people in the neighborhood that it was a big, haunted house.”
Daunted by the amount of work the house needed, the two were convinced they could make the house livable when they were able to secure the services of general contractor Robert Jahn Construction.
The company had renovated many Wright homes in the past, and once the couple knew the contractor would be available to work on the house and had an estimate for the costs to restore and renovate, they were able to bid on the house.
They tackled the big issues right away. The garage on the lot was falling down, and when the bank wouldn’t include it in the mortgage, they were able to save some money by having it removed.
They excavated the basement and shored up the foundation while creating livable space in the basement complete with a family room, bedroom and bathroom.
“The kitchen was kind of a joke, like it is in a lot of old houses,” one of the owners said. “There wasn’t even a refrigerator.”
Taking space from a rear staircase and rethinking the layout at the rear of the home, they were able to create a larger kitchen and add a powder room to the first floor. On the third floor, they took what was probably once maid’s quarters and created another bedroom and bathroom.
The owners hired local landscaper Garrett Designs to create a backyard oasis and are happily making the home their own.
Through the entire six-month renovation, the three-bedroom, one-bathroom house was transformed into a five bedroom, three full- and two half-bathroom house, including the basement space.
“We did this all without building an addition,” one of the owners said. “That’s where my husband’s real architectural wisdom came through.”
While initially he might have been reluctant to take on the demands of a Wright home in need of so much maintenance, the owner notes also said he had a huge appreciation for Wright from visiting so many Wright homes with his architect husband over the years.
“We’ve been privileged to have so many amazing visits to Wright houses in the past, so once we got started on this, I was all in.”
He said he worked meticulously to restore the details of the house, stripping paint and cleaning the original window hardware with ketchup and recreating missing beads in the original beadboard on the stairs to the second floor.
Along the way, he developed a deeper appreciation for Wright and a curiosity about the home’s past.
“It was slated for demolition in 1962. Around the time of the first historic preservation movement here. The neighbors started a letter writing campaign to save it,” he said.
While he and his husband were busy with the renovation and getting their daughter settled in Oak Park, he said, “It’s taken us until now to fully unpack the architecture and history about why this house is so significant.”
With no original drawings to go on, he began a quest to determine what Wright was doing with the home. He posits that this house might be one of the earliest precursors to Wright’s Prairie Style.
“I believe a Prairie Style element is represented here for the first time,” he said, explaining that the home appears to be laid out in a pinwheel style, which William Storrer defined as a crucial floor plan for Prairie Style homes in his book, The Frank Lloyd Wright Companion.
The home exemplifies other Wright calling cards with a compression in the lowered, closed in entry that releases in the living room. The compression and release cycle is repeated in between the living and dining room, which are connected by a low-ceilinged passage with built-in cabinetry.
Large windows on the front of the home, and a built-in banquette surrounded by windows in the dining room let the outside in.
“The inside-outside dichotomy is here too,” the owner said.
He added that the issues that once scared them away may have been key to the home’s survival.
“One of the amazing things about the house not being maintained was that it wasn’t renovated. Really, all of the architectural features of the house were intact.”
The two said they are looking forward to sharing the home with the community and continuing to discover more about Wright through their home.
“It’s not a fancy house, but he lavished it with a lot of fancy ideas,” the owner said.
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