While in Chicago we wanted to visit several of Frank Lloyd Wrights houses in the area. The Robie House is one of the most famous FLW houses and his best example of the “Prairie Style” house which is intended to fit and flow with the landscape of the Amerian prairie.

The Robie House was built in 1909-1911 while most architecture was still modeled after European designs – high turrets, grand entrances, emphasis on tallness. FLW felt that horizontal lines better captured the essence of the prairie.

This house was unique in the time it was built as it has a 3 car garage! Most houses still had stables, but Mr. Robie designed automobiles and was very modern and wanted his own car, one for his wife, and the third stall is for making repairs which was often necessary in the early days of the automobile.

Two servants lived with the Robies and their quarters were above the garage. The servants quarters flowed into the kitchen where they spent much of their time. The kitchen was quite modern, large and with an island which was unusual. Mr. Robie’s mother who needed much attention was right across the hall from the kitchen, also unusual but allowed the servants to care for her easily.

Frank Lloyd Wright often considered how a family lived when he designed a house for them and it shows in this house. While the bedrooms (master and 2 bedrooms for the children) are on the upper floor, there’s a children’s playroom on the ground floor near the billiard room. He also felt that entrances and hallways should be small and thus encouraged a person to pass through them and into the living spaces which opened up and welcomed you in. Therefore, the main entrance to the house was not visible from the street, and was small and cramped. The main entrance led into a foyer that was also fairly small and the main living areas were not visible from the foyer, to allow some privacy for the family until visitors were escorted into the main areas.

The Robies only lived in the house for one year before financial difficulties forced them to sell. The next family only lived there for about a year as well. The third family lived in the house for several years but after they sold it the house was used as a dormitory for a theology college, student housing, etc. It was vacant for many years as well. The condition of the house detiorated badly and the house was slated for demolition twice. Both times Frank Lloyd Wright himself came back to Chicago and fought to keep the house.

In the mid-90s a foundation purchased the home and they are slowly renovating it. Most of the furniture is in museums and the plan is to build replicas of much of the furniture once the structure itself is renovated.

The lack of furniture and slow renovation made the tour not quite as grand it as the house should be, but it was still a great tour.

Here are pictures we took during the tour: