William C. Stephens House
167 North Ridgeland Avenue
Oak Park, Illinois 60302-2620
Robert C. Spencer, Jr., 1910
Paul Sprague, in his “Guide to Frank Lloyd Wright and Prairie School Architecture in Oak Park,” writes:
Because of the sharply pointed gable roofs, half-timbering and groups of casements windows, it might seem that Robert Spencer had turned to the Middle Ages for inspriation in designing this charming residence. In fact, the house is a version of Spencer’s own mature Prairie idiom. This is apparent in its crisply-articulated geometric masses, and in the way they are subdivided into rectangular units. Even the supposed half-timbering proves when examined carefully to be no more than a rectangular grid of rough boards laid in the stucco.If its owner, William Stephens, an Englishman by birth, fancied himself living in a Tudor cottage, its architect knew that his client was really living in a Prairie house.
Images above courtesy of Butch Kmet (2008).
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