Laura R. Gale, widow of realtor Thomas Gale, commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to design the house on Elizabeth Court in 1909. This was not the first time that the Gale family utilized Wright. The architect had designed two houses on Chicago Avenue in Oak Park, two of Wright's "bootleg" houses, for the Gales.[3] The Gale House was designed during Wright's most productive Prairie style period and has been cited by architectural "authorities" as a milestone in the development of early modern architecture. The house was occupied by its original owner until 1962 when architect Howard Rosenwinkel purchased it and undertook a meticulous restoration.[4] The current owners of the house are Andrea Kayne and Andrew C. Mead.
Architecture
Floor plan.
The house was designed by the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright in his own Prairie style. Through his use of abstract geometrical shapes in the detail and mass of the house Wright may have anticipated and inspired the modern European architects of the 1920s. The house is considered one of Wright's most unusual designs from his years in Oak Park, Illinois.[4] It is compact and made up of interlocking rectilinear forms which surround a fireplace at its center.[4] The extreme rectilinear shapes and masses on the home's exterior are represented in none of Wright's other works either before or after the completion of the Gale House. However, the home's interior was similar to that of the Walser House in Chicago and the Barton House in Buffalo, New York.[3]
^ abcd"Mrs. Thomas H. Gale House"(PDF). National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form. December 5, 1969. Retrieved May 26, 2007 – via HAARGIS Database, Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.
