Housewalk Featured Homes and Tour

In 1905, Wright designed his first Glencoe home at 850 Sheridan Road for banker William Glasner.  Rarely open to the public, this house incorporates many of the early architectural innovations which helped define the Prairie style of architecture – such as a broad overhanging, low pitched roof and ornamental stain glass casement windows.

In 1908, Wright designed a home for Edmund D. Brigham, at 790 Sheridan Road. This home was novel at the time because it was built in concrete and remains the only all concrete home ever built by Frank Lloyd Wright.  Housewalk participants were led on a special tour of this rarely open home by the homeowner herself, a professor in the Department of History of Art and Architecture at DePaul University.

This home, often erroneously called the Gardener’s Cottage or the Honeymoon Cottage, was built in 1913 and was occupied by Sherman Booth and his family until their principal residence was completed several years later.  The home was moved to its current location at 239 Franklin after the main Booth house was built.  This house has never previously been opened for public viewing.

In addition to the Booth Cottage and the main Booth residence, Ravine Bluffs today includes five Wright-designed houses, commissioned by Sherman Booth, all built in 1915.  Booth afforded Wright the opportunity to realize his lifelong interest in creating attractive, low-cost housing. The five Ravine Bluffs homes are similar to the plans for the $5000 “Fireproof House” Wright published in Ladies Home Journal several years earlier.  The interior of the Kissam House will be open for the Wright in Glencoe Housewalk 2015.

In addition to interior tours of these four homes, Wright in Glencoe Housewalk participants will receive a special curated tour of Ravine Bluffs.  Visitors were led by docents to numerous stops on the tour highlighting various aspects of Ravine Bluffs history and features.  The curated Ravine Bluffs tour included exterior stops at all of the Wright-designed homes and structures as well as interior tours of the Booth Cottage and the Kissam House.