Gale, Mrs. Thomas H., House
About this property
The Laura Gale House, also known as the Mrs. Thomas H. Gale House, is a home in Oak Park, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois, United States. The house was designed by master architect Frank Lloyd Wright and built in 1909. It is located within the boundaries of the Frank Lloyd Wright-Prairie School of Architecture Historic District and has been listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places since March 5, 1970. Laura R. Gale, widow of realtor Thomas Gale, commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to design the house on Elizabeth Court in 1909. This was not the first time that the Gale family utilized Wright. The architect had designed two houses on Chicago Avenue in Oak Park, two of Wright's "bootleg" houses, for the Gales. The Gale House was designed during Wright's most productive Prairie style period and has been cited by architectural "authorities" as a milestone in the development of early modern architecture. The house was occupied by its original owner until 1962 when architect Howard Rosenwinkel purchased it and undertook a meticulous restoration. The current owners of the house are Andrea Kayne and Andrew C. Mead. The house was designed by the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright in his own Prairie style. Through his use of abstract geometrical shapes in the detail and mass of the house Wright may have anticipated and inspired the modern European architects of the 1920s. The house is considered one of Wright's most unusual designs from his years in Oak Park, Illinois. It is compact and made up of interlocking rectilinear forms which surround a fireplace at its center. The extreme rectilinear shapes and masses on the home's exterior are represented in none of Wright's other works either before or after the completion of the Gale House. However, the home's interior was similar to that of the Walser House in Chicago and the Barton House in Buffalo, New York. The Mrs. Thomas H. Gale House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as well as being listed a contributing property to the Frank Lloyd Wright-Prairie School of Architecture Historic District. The home is considered one of Wright's most successful small house designs and the forerunner to several other important Prairie style, Wright-designed homes which culminated with the completion of Fallingwater in Mill Run, Pennsylvania, in 1936. Heinz, Thomas A. (2006). The Vision of Frank Lloyd Wright. Edison, New Jersey: Chartwell Books. pp. 142–143, 145, 153. ISBN 0785821457. Storrer, William Allin (1993). The Frank Lloyd Wright Companion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-77624-8.
Location
Categories
Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).
Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Everything a full report reveals about Gale, Mrs. Thomas H., House
This page lists Gale, Mrs. Thomas H., House. A full Aubrey report for an address near it pulls together this listing alongside battlefield records, land patents, and every other historical record within a chosen radius:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Questions about this property
When was Gale, Mrs. Thomas H., House listed on the National Register?
Gale, Mrs. Thomas H., House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 4, 1970.
What type of historic resource is Gale, Mrs. Thomas H., House?
Gale, Mrs. Thomas H., House is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.
What is the period of significance for Gale, Mrs. Thomas H., House?
The period of significance for Gale, Mrs. Thomas H., House is recorded as the industrial era.
Can I research the history near Gale, Mrs. Thomas H., House?
Yes. Aubrey Research reports search National Register listings, battlefield records, land patents, and other primary historical sources within any radius of a US address. A report for an address near Gale, Mrs. Thomas H., House will include this listing and all other historical records in the area.
More in Cook County
Historic places, battles, and census history across Cook County.
Explore CookCounty ›More historic places in Illinois
Browse all historic places in Illinois.
View Illinoishistoric sites ›Research the history near this site
An Aubrey US report for an address near Gale, Mrs. Thomas H., House will include this listing alongside battlefield records and other historical sources within your chosen radius.