Thursday, June 4th, 2026 – Chicago
Today was divided into two distinct parts. The first was a morning tour of the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio in Oak Park. The second was a visit to the Lincoln Park Conservatory.
We started with Frank Lloyd Wright house. This is the first home Wright built for himself in the 1890s. As a young man, he bought a piece of property with a small home already on it in Oak Park, a semi-rural outside Chicago. The small home, he named ‘Anna’s House’ after his mother, who lived there. The rest of the property, long and narrow, was where he built his own home, and experimented through several renovations with the architectural style now known as the ‘Prairie Style’.
The home was small, but incredibly detailed. It was a shingle style home, full of large geometric shapes – rectangle bases, and a large triangular gable in front. It was a district departure from the Victorian and Queen Anne homes in the area at the time. My favorite quote by Frank Lloyd Wright is his description of the typical Victorian type architecture “candle-snuffer roofs, turnip domes and corkscrew spires”. In contrast, his home shows the early focus on fitting the house to the nature around him.
I’ve seen Wright’s ‘Allen House’, in Wichita, (another post earlier in this blog), and it is a more mature version of the architecture that is shown in his Oak Park home. You can see the ideas beginning in Oak Park. The Oak Park home went through many renovations, as Wright started and grew his family of 6 children. My favorite room is the barrel-vaulted playroom with a gallery so the children could put on plays.
There were a couple of things of note about the playroom. One was the piano. It was a full-size Grand Piano, but only the front of it was in the playroom. The rest extended through the wall and above the stairs! The other was the set of Lincoln Logs in the book case. I didn’t know that Lincoln Logs were originated by Wright’s oldest son, Frank Lloyd Wright Jr, also an architect.
I could go on and on, but there is lots of information on the history of this house and it’s origin in the roots of Wright’s vision, but needless to say, the house alone is worth the visit. But the studio is incredible. The studio looks like it was part of the house, and at times, through the many renovations, it was. But the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust has set it up as it was when Wright used it as his studio and used it as his main workplace.
The reception hall reminded me again of the Allen House. The outside and the inside merged as one. It was hard to tell where each began. This was discussed in the Allen House, and you can see where the idea began in the Oak Park Studio.
Everything that Frank Lloyd Wright designed was part of a whole. The furniture, the brickwork, the outside, the inside, the millwork, etc. – all of it was part of his design and made to be a seamless part of the building. His studio was no exception.
In the square drafting room, the windows were high, so the draftsman wouldn’t have any distractions. The tables and chairs, functions drafting tables, were his designs. The short pillars which anchored the center of room visually, were actually storage for rolled drawings. The upper story, and octagon, open to the to the story below, was supported by an ingenious series of chains. Up here, the artisans, artists, and craftsman worked in abundant light and windows. Everything was carefully thought out.
In the Drafting Room, there was even a brick and steel vault. When asked, the docent mentioned that after the Chicago Fire, every building was required to have a fireproof vault. Wright obviously kept his designs in the vault, but he also kept his valuable collection of Japanese prints. As his interest in this artwork style grew, so did it’s influence on his work.
In the octagonal conference room, the feeling of light and motion was designed by high windows (so there were no distractions when presenting his designs), and three Octagon shapes – skylight, ceiling and head height molding, each shifted to the points were in line with the straight lines of the next shape down, giving the feeling of spinning.
During one of the renovations, there was a small tree in the way. With Wright’s feeling of nature, he made room for it, and incorporated it into his design of his house. There is also a gingko tree that was on the property when he bought it. It is still here, and part of the reason gingko leaves are associated with his designs.
I took a ton of pictures, few of them all that artistic, but more to capture the details of the building. I’ve added many at the end of this post.
The second part of the day was spent at the Lincoln Park Conservatory. We took an Uber back into the Loop and then north to Lincoln Park. The waterfront of Chicago along Lake Michigan is vast and well developed into parks, green spaces, marinas, and beaches. It is one of the most amazing things about this city, and the areas are well used by tourist and citizens alike. We were most surprised by the crowds at the beaches! They were absolutely packed. It reminded me of Waikiki in Hawaii. Absolutely packed with people! Our driver got a kick out of being so surprised and asked where we were from. We told him Seattle was too cold for this!
Lincoln Park is massive – 1,200 acres. It includes a zoo, gardens, ponds and the conservatory. The conservatory itself is a large Victorian Era glass house. It was built between 1890 and 1895, and includes a Palm House, Orchid House and a Fern House. The building was designed by a well-known architect, Joseph Silsbee. Inside, it’s used to showcase exotic plants, but also to grow the many plants and flowers used in the park.
I know very little about plants, but I really enjoyed our time here. Everything was well labelled and beautifully tended. Some of the signs were hilarious. Clearly those in charge have a sense of humor. I took lots of pictures of plants I know nothing about because they were incredibly beautiful. They are attached at the end of the post after the Frank Lloyd Wright pictures. We would have like to explore Lincoln Park more, seen the zoo, and other parts of the waterfront, but we were tired.
We finished the day with another dinner at the Remington – I had the best piece of Filet Mignon. There is nothing like Midwest beef! This is the close of our time in Chicago. I will definitely come back. There is so much to see and do here, and I’d love to see it in the fall when the leaves are turning. It was be spectacular.
We walked down Michigan Ave from the steakhouse to our hotel. It was fun to walk the length and look at the buildings. Like everything around the area, there were details to the buildings that you can’t see by driving. A metal grill here, a stone detailed window frame, or a carved detail. You can see how somebody like Frank Lloyd Wright and others thrived in this city.
As always, I took too many pictures. More from the conservatory follow after the pictures from the Wright house.
Lincoln Park:
Frank Lloyd Wright Oak Park home and studio:
Lincoln Park Conservatory:
