Frank W. Thomas House

Oak Park, United States

Exterior only

Visible from the street; the inside is private.

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Located at 210 Forest Avenue in Oak Park, Illinois, the Frank W. Thomas House is a 1901 residence designed by Frank Lloyd Wright that marks a seminal moment in American architectural history. Wright himself identified it as the first of his Prairie School houses—a style that would come to define early twentieth-century organic architecture. The design exemplifies hallmark Prairie School features: rooms are elevated with no basement, the roof is low with broad overhangs, casement windows punctuate the facades, and ornate leaded glass adorns the openings. Built-in shelving and central hearths integrate furnishings into the spatial composition. The Chicago architectural firm Tallmadge & Watson, themselves associated with the Prairie School movement, added a rear addition in 1923. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.