The McArthur House - Chicago, IL
Posted by: 
libbykc
N 41° 48.381 W 087° 35.617
16T E 450689 N 4628446
One of the “bootleg houses,” this home from 1892 is in the Kenwood neighborhood of Chicago.
Waymark Code: WM11VR9
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 12/24/2019
Views: 8
This early Frank Lloyd Wright home is a few blocks from the Obama’s home in the Kenwood neighborhood of Chicago. It is next door to another bootleg house in a different style, the Blossom House.
From a news article about its sale in 2014:
Wright built the McArthur house at age 24, while moonlighting for some extra cash to support his new family. It was Wright’s first use of cantilever construction and its hybrid Victorian-Prairie style makes it very livable—arguably more so than a lot of Wright’s ego-driven work to come.
The McArthur house is large and delightful, with six bedrooms and about 5,000 square feet of living space, all of it shaped by art glass, elegant lighting, deep window ledges, a grand fireplace, and heavy-duty built-ins
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From the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust:
Located in the Kenwood neighborhood of Chicago, the McArthur house was designed as a “bootleg” project for Wright’s friend, Warren McArthur, and his family. Its dormered gambrel roof and octagonal bays are reminiscent of the Queen Anne style, as well as the architecture of Joseph Lyman Silsbee, Wright’s former employer. The simplicity of the interior, which was neither painted nor wallpapered, demonstrates Wright’s appreciation for the natural qualities of organic materials like wood. Indeed, in his writings, Wright extolled the “intrinsically artistic properties”—the markings, color, and texture—of unadulterated wood.
Wright had a longstanding relationship with the McArthur family. Warren McArthur’s eldest son, Albert, eventually became an architect. He apprenticed under Wright at the Oak Park Studio from 1907 to 1909 and is well known for his design of the Arizona Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix.
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