Preservationists and an Austin neighborhood organization are rallying to help save an architecturally-influential — but seriously deteriorating — Frank Lloyd Wright home on the Far West Side.
The groups are seeking to rescue the J.J. Walser House, 42 N. Central Ave., a 1903 stucco residence and Chicago landmark that is a template for the architect’s more celebrated Prairie School designs.
The home has been physically distressed for the last 25 years. But its condition worsened after the longtime owner died in 2019 and foreclosure proceedings against the home were begun.
Heirs of the late owner are in possession of the unoccupied home, but lack the funds to care for the property.
Barbara Gordon, executive director of the Chicago-based Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy — one of the organizations attempting to save the Walser house — said her group worked with the family to have portions of the home boarded-up last month to help keep out the elements.
“Before the winter sets in, and all the rain,” Gordon said. “It’s the kitchen wing that is really showing the most signs of water infiltration.”
“It’s a very valuable asset for the community from the standpoint that there are not many communities that can say they have a Frank Lloyd Wright home,” said Darnell Shields, executive director of Austin Coming Together. “It’s a cultural asset.”
And one far too valuable to lose.
Built when Central Avenue was a showplace
It takes a little work to really see the Walser house, and not just because of rotting exterior woodwork and crumbling stucco. A wide, four-story apartment building crowds in the home’s southern side, and an unruly mix of bushes and trees obscures its facade.
But keep looking. The home’s beauty — and design elements that would become hallmarks of Wright’s early work — becomes apparent, from its horizontal lines, deeply overhanging eaves and the band of windows on the second floor.
Wright would later repeat this approach with larger and more noteworthy homes such as South Bend, Indiana’s K. C. DeRhodes House, from 1906, the Barton House, built in Buffalo, New York in 1904, and the 1910 Horner House, which stood at 1331 W. Sherwin Ave., until it was wrecked (for this?) in 1952.
“So you can kind of see this progression of his ideas of this,” Gordon said.
Built for printing executive Joseph Jacob Walser, Jr., the home was constructed just four years after the Austin neighborhood was annexed into Chicago — and helped mark Central Avenue as an early showplace for stylish residential architecture.
The historic Seth Warner House, which survived a 2023 fire, is located six blocks north.
Restoring the home is critical to an effort by Austin Coming Together, the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning and the Urban Land Institute to revamp Central Avenue, Shields said.
“We’re trying to better position Central Avenue as a spoke that connects all the things in our community,” he said. “A big part of what connects everybody is the culture and history.”
What’s next?
Kendra Parzen, advocacy manager for Landmarks Illinois, said the group wants the city’s law department to place the home in Demolition Court.
The maneuver wouldn’t open the door to the building being demolished, but it would place it in a court where a judge would have the power to force the bank that foreclosed on the house to make repairs.
And a Demolition Court judge could also hear any motions to appoint a receiver, who could then at least get the home stabilized.
“So far, the city has been receptive to our requests,” Parzen said.
Gordon said the home “needs to be absolutely dried out inside, outside — and then [to begin] reexamining its structural integrity, reexamining the building envelope.”
Restoring the home — and that would be a bit down the road — could be $2 million or more, Shields said, adding the group is up for the task of raising the cash.
“It’s definitely not something we’re shying away from,” Shields said.
But once it’s set right, the home could be converted into a house museum on its first floor, with office spaces on its second floor, he said.
The restored home would help efforts to uplift Central Avenue while contributing to the wealth of fine architecture in community, including the magnificent residences of the Austin Historic District.
And the home is a mile east of Oak Park, which has the world’s largest concentration of Wright buildings.
“It’s part of this story of Wright in this area, and that’s why it’s so important to continue to save it,” Gordon said. “And it’s really important to keep it in Austin and have Austin celebrate it as one of their assets.”
Lee Bey is architecture critic for the Sun-Times and appears on ABC7 News Chicago. He is also a member of the Editorial Board.
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