Frank Lloyd Wright’s first privately commissioned home, the William Winslow House, has hit the market in River Forest with an asking price of nearly $2 million.
The house — completed in 1894 — spans more than 5,000 square feet with five bedrooms and 3 1/2 bathrooms. It was listed Sept. 4 at $1,985,000, according to @properties Realtor Elizabeth August.
The home, 515 Auvergne Place, was commissioned in 1893 by Edith and William Winslow, owners of a Chicago ornamental iron company that created the ironwork façade of the former Carson Pirie Scott building in the Loop. Wright, who had just left the firm of Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan, was 26 when he took the job.
It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, and the blueprints are in the Library of Congress. The home is one of 380 Wright structures still remaining, and it last sold for $1,375,000 in 2016, when the current owners took on the home as a retirement project, August said.
She said the owners have put another $1.3 million into restoring and renovating the home, largely updating the “mechanics” of the house such as the plumbing and air conditioning, while also restoring the ornate limestone that had previously been painted over.
“When you are standing in front of the house with the prairie grasses it’s really inspiring and breathtaking,” August said. “You come up to the house and it has this amazing presence, you really see what Frank Lloyd Wright was trying to do with the elements of it.”
Barbara Gordon, the executive director of the Chicago-based Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, said that by this point in Wright’s career, he had started to move away from the Gothic and Victorian influences.
Rather, he turned to his mentor Louis Sullivan’s work for inspiration, using “very abstract geometric simplicity” and orienting the house horizontally instead of vertically, despite its third-story tower.
“It was a very modern home in comparison to the other houses being built at the time,” Gordon said, also noting the ornate woodwork and limestone.
The Winslow House was an early example of the Prairie style that Wright would later be known for, with its low-pitched roof designed to protect from the summer sun while still bringing in light during the winter, as well as an open floor plan where the heart of the home is in the centrally located fireplace, Gordon added.
That’s just a part of what Wright did to bring movement to his designs, carving out space for people to sit and visit, Gordon said, referring to the seating area near the fireplace and other cozy spots.
“That room within a room concept. … It creates this conversation and gathering space,” Gordon said.
Another part of Wright’s signature design is the use of art glass — which Gordon believes is almost entirely original and intact at the Winslow House — to frame the views outside the home.
“He’s really bringing in nature to the design of the building,” Gordon said. “You can look out and experience the landscape, but it’s augmented by these beautiful windows.”
Wright’s Warren Hickox House, a home built six years later, was put on the market in Kankakee in March at a price of $779,000. The price has since dropped to $639,900. Gordon said that home had had less remodeling work, but the Winslow House is “move-in ready.”
“It’s a really special opportunity for someone to own a home that has been so well taken care of and restored and honored in its architectural integrity,” Gordon said.
