Many First-Timers In Upcoming Wright Tour

The Wright Plus 2015 Housewalk is coming up in Chicago and there are still a handful of tickets left! This internationally renowned architectural Housewalk featuring rare interior tours of private homes designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and his contemporaries, will include several homes that have never before been seen on the walk.

Among the residences new to the Wright Plus Housewalk in 2015 are three buildings on Wright’s Avery Coonley Estate, as well as Ernest Hemingway’s boyhood home. The 41st annual Housewalk will take place 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., May 16, 2015 in Oak Park and Riverside, Illinois.

Also on the Wright Plus tour is the place where Wright’s innovative Prairie homes were conceived: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Home and Studio, the oldest Wright building open as a public museum. The Housewalk includes two 2015 World Heritage Site nominees – Unity Temple and Frederick C. Robie House – both designed in Wright’s Oak Park studio.

The following private residences are part of the 2015 Wright Plus Housewalk lineup:

  • Avery Coonley Residence (Frank Lloyd Wright, 1908) – The spectacular, meticulously restored main residence on the elaborate Coonley Estate in Riverside. First time on the Housewalk. (top photo)
  • Coonley Stables (Frank Lloyd Wright, 1911) – The estate’s former stables, rescued from demolition and transformed into a residence in the 1950s. This house is new to the Housewalk.
  • Oscar B. Balch House (Frank Lloyd Wright, 1911) – Prairie elements combine with the innovations of Wright’s later career in this transitional work.
  • Dr. Clarence E. and Grace Hall Hemingway House (Henry G. Fiddelke, 1906) – A grand Prairie-style residence and childhood home of one of the most important writers of the 20th century. This house is new to the Housewalk. (middle photo)
  • Thorncroft (William Drummond, 1912) – A classic example of Prairie School architecture built in Riverside to house teachers for the Coonley Estate’s private school. First time on the Housewalk.
  • Mary Walker Herron House (1888) – New to Wright Plus – a landmark, half-timbered residence later expanded by the renowned Prairie School architecture firm of Tallmadge & Watson in 1924. (bottom photo)
  • Paul Blatchford House I (1887) – An intriguing Stick style building with intricate woodwork and decorative glass.

At each house, guides will talk about the architectural elements, original owners, design details and restoration.

And, for the first time in the 41-year history of the walk, Wright Plus will venture into Riverside, Illinois for a look at Wright’s Coonley Estate, including Thorncroft. The Coonley lots were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, a pioneer in landscape architecture and urban planning, when he planned the village of Riverside in 1869. Celebrated landscape architect Jens Jensen designed the estate’s landscaping for Frank Lloyd Wright.

Tickets are $110 each and $95 for members of the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust. Transportation between Oak Park and Riverside is included in the ticket. Proceeds from the Wright Plus Architectural Housewalk support the mission of the organization to engage, educate and inspire the public through architecture, design and the legacy of Frank Lloyd Wright, and to preserve the Trust’s historic sites and collections.

For more information about Wright Plus 2015 and related events, please visit flwright.org/wrightplus.

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