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Prairie School Architecture in Winnetka

By
Real Estate Agent with @Properties

UPDATED 2020

 

Prairie School Architecture in Winnetka

When one thinks of the Midwest, one thinks of prairies, no?  Grasses that would come up to the withers on horses making their way through the (formerly) vast prairies of Illinois.  What makes Prairie really unique to us is that it is totally indigenous, the first architectural style to not be based on a European model. It's 100% American and was revolutionized by Frank Lloyd Wright when he was getting started in Oak Park, Illinois. 

Frank Lloyd Wright felt that Victorian homes were boxy and confining with their maze of smaller rooms and he envisioned low horizontal lines with open interior spaces.  Prairie houses were designed to blend in with the flat prairie landscape. They are usually built of stucco, are almost always irregular in shape and are characterized by broad, overhanging eaves.  
Ornamentation is rare in these homes with the most evident being beautiful stained glass windows.  The design was simple and straightforward and was supposed to represent a structure that simply grew from the site.

Although Winnetka does not have any homes directly designed by Wright, there are several done by his colleagues, most notably Walter Burley Griffin, Barry Byrne, John Van Bergen and George Washington Maher. 

19 Warwick Road

Prairie Home, Winnetka


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

38 Abbotsford Road

Prairie Home, Winnetka

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

402 Hawthorne

Prairie Home, Winnetka

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1015 Starr (demolished)

Prairie Home, Winnetka

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Specializing in homes for sale in Winnetka, Wilmette, Kenilworth, Northfield, Glencoe, Glenview, Northbrook, and Evanston.

Comments (3)

Maria Morton
Platinum Realty - Kansas City, MO
Kansas City Real Estate 816-560-3758

Margaret, my Mom calls these 'two way houses' because as you enter, you can go either way. LOL I do love Prairie Style architecture though and these historic homes in Winnetka are excellent examples of Wright's idea put into practice. Thank you!

Aug 29, 2010 12:56 PM
Maria Morton
Platinum Realty - Kansas City, MO
Kansas City Real Estate 816-560-3758

P.S. This post, written in such a friendly and casually informative style, is Featured in Architecturally Interesting. Thank you, Margaret!

Winning cup

Aug 29, 2010 04:20 PM
Margaret Goss
@Properties - Winnetka, IL
Chicago's North Shore & Winnetka Real Estate

Maria -

Thank you!  I'm lucky because it's really easy to write about historical homes here since there are so many.  I'll be tackling Kenilworth soon - our neighbor to the north where I lived for 20 years - they have a wealth of historic homes.

Aug 30, 2010 11:36 AM