Wright in Kankakee, the nonprofit owners of Kankakee's B. Harley Bradley House, claim the 1900 design makes it Frank Lloyd Wright's first Prairie-style house.
Courtesy of Katherine Rodeghier
When they think of Frank Lloyd Wright, many fans of the famous architect envision his distinctive Prairie Style. Horizontal lines, earth tones, projecting eaves and rows of windows.
Two Midwest homes claiming to be the first and last of his Prairie Style tours in Kankakee, Illinois and Wichita, Kansas. A close look at each of these bookcases reveals similarities between them, while showing how Wright's work evolved as he refined his signature design at the turn of the last century.
A historical past
In 1900, Wright designed the B. Harley Bradley House in Kankakee, which he claims is his first Prairie Style house. Some students of Wright's work disagree. They point to the 1901 Ward W. Willits House in Highland Park as his first mature Prairie Style project. However, the nonprofit Wright in Kankakee that oversees the landmark has copies of Wright's original plans for the house from June 1900. In any case, the privately owned Willits House is not open for tours, while Bradley tours continue in March from a winter blank.
The chairs in the dining room of the B. Harley Bradley House in Kankakee have the high backs favored by Frank Lloyd Wright.
Courtesy of Katherine Rodeghier
Some may find it ironic that the funds behind the Bradley building, with Wright's design mimicking the tall-grass prairie of the Midwest, came from the breaking up of the prairie. B. Harley Bradley's grandfather manufactured farm implements, including plows, and passed his fortune on to his descendants. Bradley's wealthy wife, Anna, inherited the land for the house and persuaded Wright to build adjoining houses for her and her brother, Warren Hickox Jr. Kankakee River. Both are located in the Riverview Historic District which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
As it changed hands between owners, the Bradley House became the site of both great success and terrible tragedy. For three decades it served as the Yesteryear Inn white tablecloth. Another wealthy owner indulged his personal passion by using Bradley's stable to build and sell birdhouses.
But two deaths mar the history of the house. Bradley committed suicide in a Chicago hotel in 1914 after financial setbacks. Later, owner Stephen Small, whose family ran a multinational media company, was murdered in 1987 in a kidnapping gone wrong. He was buried in a box while his captors waited for a ransom, but suffocated when they failed to provide adequate ventilation.
The art glass windows in Kankakee's B. Harley Bradley House were designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
Courtesy of Katherine Rodeghier
The new owners began restoring the house in 2005, and in 2010 Wright in Kankakee took over and opened the property for tours and events.
The massive house is 6,000 square feet over two floors, in addition to a basement and a 3,000 square foot two-story stable. The wings frame the main living room. To some eyes, the plaster and dark wood exterior with its low, soaring gable roof looks like an English half-timbered house, but with a Prairie-style makeover.
Bradley's interior was the first house that Wright had complete control over, including carpets and furniture. He designed 90 art glass windows in geometric designs inspired by plants. About 35% of the house is original, the rest was painstakingly reconstructed. Workers drilled holes in the walls to find Wright's original gold paint and were able to replicate it from samples sent to the Sherwin-Williams Co.
Much of the Allen House Wright designed in 1915 in Wichita, Kan., is original, including 40 pieces of furniture by Wright and George Mann Niedecken.
Courtesy of Katherine Rodeghier
Governor's house
Much of the home Wright designed in Wichita for newspaper owner Henry J. Allen and his wife, Elsie, is original, including its art glass windows. Forty pieces of furniture were designed by Wright and George Mann Niedecken, with whom Wright collaborated on twelve projects.
The house is located in College Hill, a neighborhood of oil and cattle barons when Wright designed the house in 1915. It was Wright's last true Prairie Style residence. The Allens moved in in 1918 but left for the state capital when Allen became governor of Kansas, serving from 1919 to 1923. When they returned, they stayed until 1947. The house, with 4,012 square feet of living space plus a basement, appears on the National Register of Historic Places. Tours of the Allen House Foundation continue in February.
Wright's design for the Allen House was years ahead of its time, foreshadowing homes of the 1950s and 1960s. Glass doors in the living and dining rooms open to a quarry-tiled terrace and a sunken garden with a koi pond. Rooms have Japanese influences, such as movable screens and lamps. At the time, Wright was working at the Imperial Hotel in Japan and commuting between Wichita and Tokyo.
Windows and glass doors in the living room and dining room of Frank Lloyd Wright's Allen House in Wichita, Kan., overlook the quarry-tiled terrace and sunken garden.
Courtesy of Katherine Rodeghier
Wright employed the oft-repeated squeeze-and-release tactic at the entrance, dropping the ceiling to a height of just over 6 feet before opening into an expansive space. Fans of Wright designs may notice that his famous dining chairs have lower backs than those in his other homes. It was a change they insisted Allens make.
Outside, a ribbon of gray Carthage marble runs along the base of the house. Above, tan and ocher bricks are joined by horizontal mortar gilded in gold, another similarity to the Imperial Hotel. A circulation gallery on the second floor has a belt of windows overlooking the terrace and a garden house. Wright's familiar horizontal lines continue along the red tiled roof.
Some students of Wright architecture say that the Allen House appears to be the forerunner of Wright's Usonian houses of the 1930s. Wichita residents Louise and Charles Hoult commissioned Wright to design his first Usonian design in 1936. It was not built. never.
If you go
COVID-19 Precautions: Face coverings are required. limited tour sizes.
B. Harley Bradley House: 701 S. Harrison Ave, Kankakee. Tours resume in March. $25 standard, $30 in depth. (815) 936-9630 or wright1900.org/
Frank Lloyd Wright's Allen House: 255 N. Roosevelt St., Wichita, Kansas. Tours resume in February. Standard tour $22 or moonshine, long tour $40. (316) 687-1027 or flwrightwichita.org/
Information for this article was gathered during a writers conference sponsored by Visit Wichita and a media tour sponsored by Visit Kankakee County.
