William T. Allen house - Riverside, IL
Posted by: 
adgorn
N 41° 49.556 W 087° 48.976
16T E 432214 N 4630771
Located on Riverside Road, it features Italianate design, with bracketed eaves, window crowns, and tall and narrow bracketed and pedimented windows that sometimes pierce the roof line and eaves with fine and detail work.
Waymark Code: WM6NNA
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 06/27/2009
Views: 3
This house belonged to William T. Allen, who was a major investor of the Riverside Improvement Company, which helped oversee Frederick Law Olmsted's General Plan of Riverside, IL. It was designed and built in 1869 by William LeBaron Jenny. Jenny, a prominent member of the Chicago School of Architecture, was later to be considered the Father of the Modern Skyscraper for his design of the Home Insurance Building (1884) in Chicago.
In 1915-1916, Allen’s daughter Harriet Reed converted the home into a two flat, moving the carriage entrance, turning the stairs around, and stuccoing and “prairieizing” the exterior. In 1969, the house was converted back to a single-family residence. Recently the stucco was removed, the clapboard repaired and repainted, and the prairie-style front porch was removed and replaced with a new porch that mimics the original design.
I have heard that this house, with its destinctive chimneys, was used by Charles Lindberg as a landmark from above, flying into Chicago.
If you recognize the house from movies, you are correct. It was featured in the Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock movie called "The Lake House."
Public/Private: private
Year Built: 1869
Web Address: [Web Link]
Tours Available?: Not listed
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