- George Furbeck House
Infobox nrhp
name = George W. Furbeck House
nrhp_type = cp
caption =
location = Oak Park, Cook County,Illinois , USA
nearest_city =
lat_degrees = 41
lat_minutes = 53
lat_seconds = 27
lat_direction = N
long_degrees = 87
long_minutes = 47
long_seconds = 35
long_direction = W
area =
built = 1897Frank Lloyd Wright Architectural Guide Map, "Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust".]
architect =Frank Lloyd Wright
architecture = Queen Anne,Prairie style
added =December 4 ,1973
visitation_num =
visitation_year =
refnum = 73000699
mpsub =
governing_body = Private ownerThe George W. Furbeck House is a house located in the
Chicago suburb ofOak Park, Illinois ,United States . The house was designed by famous American architectFrank Lloyd Wright in 1897 and constructed for Chicago electrical contractor George W. Furbeck and his new bride Sue Allin Harrington. The home's interior is much as it appeared when the house was completed but the exterior has seen some alteration. The house is an important example of Frank Lloyd Wright's transitional period of the late 1890s which culminated with the birth of the first fully mature early modernPrairie style house. The Furbeck House was listed as acontributing property to a U.S. federalRegistered Historic District in 1973 and declared a local Oak Park Landmark in 2002.History
George Furbeck's father, Warren, purchased the future site of the George W. Furbeck House in 1892. Furbeck was working as an electrical contractor in Chicago at the time and maintained a residence with his parents. On
April 9 ,1897 the "Oak Park Reporter" announced that George Furbeck would be erecting aFrank Lloyd Wright designed home on the site his father had purchased five years earlier. The site of the Furbeck home provided George Furbeck with easy access to the Oak Park Avenue train station and thus, to his office in Chicago. OnJune 29 ,1897 , two weeks after ground was broken on his new home, Furbeck married Sue Allin Harrington ofMichigan . The next day Warren Furbeck's deed for the site of the George Furbeck House was transferred to his son. The George Furbeck House was completed in late 1897 or early 1898"Oak Park Landmark Nomination Form", pg. 4-5. Entire paragraph referenced.]The interior of the home has seen very little alteration and is mostly intact as Wright originally envisioned it. The exterior underwent significant alteration in 1920 when the enclosed
brick frontporch was built on theretaining wall that surrounded the original, smaller, open porch. The third floordormer was also extended as well." [http://www.oprf.com/flw/Furbeck.html George W. Furbeck House] ," "Oak Park Tourist," excerpted from: Sprague, Paul E. "Guide to Frank Lloyd Wright & Prairie School Architecture in Oak Park" Oak Park Bicentennial Commission of the American Revolution [and] Oak Park Landmarks Commission, Village of Oak Park: 1986, (ISBN 0961691506). RetrievedMay 31 2007 .]Architecture
The house was designed at the beginning of Wright's three year period of experimentation that resulted in the fully mature Prairie house in the early 20th century with such projects as the
Arthur Heurtley House and theFrank Thomas House , both in Oak Park. It combines elements from the traditional Queen Anne style and from Wright's own Prairie style, as such the home represents a transition by Wright toward early modern style.The home's windows are wood with wooden frames and mostly casement style, most of the first floor windows are topped with plain gray limestone
lintel s. Some of the casement windows feature originalart glass with simple geometric designs."Oak Park Landmark Nomination Form", pg. 6.] The art glass, which is one of Wright's earliest completely original designs of the type, features three vertical lines with simple colored borders. When compared with the art glass on theIsidore Heller House , designed the same year, the Furbeck glass is uninteresting and may represent the start of Wright's glass border art work.Heinz, Thomas A. " [http://books.google.com/books?id=Vdhz8Y94BxUC&pg=PA43&ots=DOJZD2z-iE&dq=George+Furbeck+House&ie=ISO-8859-1&sig=vWMKS1de4atCYEPmKDiNMjudEg4 Frank Lloyd Wright's Stained Glass & Lightscreens] ", (Google Books ), Gibbs Smith, 2005, pg. 43, (ISBN 1586858432). Retrieved9 June 2007 .] Beneath the first and second floor windows a continuous stone sill course wraps around the house.The front (east) elevation is framed by two octagonal towers and the entire structure is clad in a pink-colored brick. The building's
hip roof features overhangingeave s, an element common toPrairie style architecture. The entire structure rests upon a stepped,limestone water table. The main feature of the front facade, besides the octagonal towers, is the 20 ft (6.10 m) X 20 ft, one-story sun porch projecting from the building. The sun porch has a low-pitched hip roof with an eave that projects over the front door, which is centered on the porch and flanked by two pairs of casement windows. Above the sun porch, on the second floor, is a pair ofart glass doors which open onto abalcony between the two octagonal towers.ignificance
The George Furbeck House is listed as a
contributing property to theFrank Lloyd Wright-Prairie School of Architecture Historic District ." [http://gis.hpa.state.il.us/hargis Frank Lloyd Wright-Prairie School of Architecture Historic District] ," Property Information Report-District listing, HAARGIS Database, "Illinois Historic Preservation Agency". Retrieved9 June 2007 ] .] The historic district was added to the U.S.National Register of Historic Places onDecember 4 ,1973 . [http://www.nr.nps.gov/ National Register Information System] , National Register of Historic Places, "National Park Service". Retrieved9 June 2007 .] OnNovember 18 ,2002 the Furbeck House was declared a local Oak Park Landmark by the Oak Park Village Board." [http://www.oak-park.us/public/pdfs/Historic%20Preservation/11.08.06_Historic_Landmark_List.pdf Oak Park Historic Landmarks] ," (PDF ), "Village of Oak Park", official website,8 November 2006 . Retrieved9 June 2007 .]As part of Wright's transitional decade of the 1890s the Furbeck House is significant as the beginning of a three year period of experimentation by the
architect which resulted in the first fully modern style residential buildings. The George Furbeck House connects Wright's early period, which included geometric Queen Anne houses such as theRobert P. Parker House , with his fully mature Prairie style which resulted in early modern homes such as the Heurtley House. Prominent features reminiscent of Wright's early work includes theoctagon towers; a shape he was exploring throughout his transitional decade. The home'srectilinear massing,hip roof , casement windows and horizontal sill course all featured extensively in later Prairie style homes by Wright."Oak Park Landmark Nomination Form", pg. 8. Entire paragraph referenced.]Notes
References
*" [http://gis.hpa.state.il.us/hargis/PDFs/209045.pdf George W. Furbeck House] ," (
PDF ), Oak Park Landmark Nomination Form, HAARGIS Database, "Illinois Historic Preservation Agency". Retrieved9 June 2007 .
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