March 10, 2013

Oak Park, Frank Lloyd Wright and me


I’ve always known Oak Park, Illinois. Daddy’s family lived there when he was a boy. My aunts lived there when I was a child. My parents lived there when they were first married. I spent my first Christmas in Oak Park, basking in the adoration of grandmothers, aunts, uncles and cousins.


Later, I learned to my surprise that other people knew it, too -- as “the place where Frank Lloyd Wright lived”. My Aunt Pauline was probably the first to tell me about Oak Park’s famous citizen. She took great pride in both Oak Park and Chicago and was always eager for me to know that “famous people” had lived there (though I feel certain that Aunt Pauline was a bit perplexed by the Prairie School
I have a vague memory of being driven by Frank Lloyd Wright houses when I was older and saying “Ew!” in approved teenage style. Either my parents agreed with me or didn’t disagree enough to try to change my mind. We never visited the houses and, if anyone ever tried to convince me of his importance to American architecture, I don’t remember the conversation.
A few years ago, when my Charlottesville tenants went to Chicago specifically to see the Frank Lloyd Wright buildings there and in Oak Park, I felt that perhaps it was time I took another look, myself. This summer I got the opportunity.
Oak Park had always seemed a more suitable home for our fairly conservative family than for a cutting edge architect. In the early 1830s, an Englishman named Kettlestrings bought the land that became the village. In 1855 he moved to Chicago, subdivided the earlier estate and sold it to “good people who were against saloons and for good schools and churches.” After the Great Chicago Fire, its population grew as people who had lost their homes moved there. It is possible my great grandfather was among them. It is sure that the young architect and his first wife Kitty Tobin moved there in 1889 after their marriage. I imagine that, as a young architect, he needed a place he could afford more than one where he would fit in. Decide for yourself. Here are some of his neighbors’ homes


.

 And this is his wedding present to his wife


 which was gradually modified as their six children were born. The studio was added in 1898, two years before my grandparents married.
Though there was some overlap in the years both families lived in Oak Park, I’m sure they did not meet, though it’s fun to imagine that Aunt Pauline might have gone to school with the younger Wright children. One neighbor at least was willing to take a chance on the up-and-coming architect. Wright’s first independent commission was to build a house for Nathan G. Moore, a Chicago attorney who lived one block south of him. Moore did not give his neighbor free reign, however. He didn’t want anything too controversial. "I don't fancy sneaking down back streets to my morning train just to avoid being laughed at." he insisted. But when you’re just getting started and have a growing family, sometimes you have to compromise. Wright built it, and rebuilt it several years later after a fire destroyed part of it, but never liked it.

 

 I appreciated what I saw this summer, though I’d never choose such a house to live in. But there was one other Oak Park house I longed to see. I knew that my grandfather had lived in Oak Park until he died in 1941. Was his house still there? Unfortunately, I couldn’t remember the address when I was there this summer. It was among family papers in Charlottesville. When I was preparing this post, I googled it. The village website confirmed a house at this address from the right period. Alas, there was no photo. A short time later, thanks to e-mail, digital cameras and the kindness of friends, I at last saw my own personal favorite house in Oak Park.