William B. Greene House
1300 West Garfield Avenue
Aurora, Illinois - Frank
Lloyd Wright - 1912
The Greene House is the only
house in Aurora designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Constructed in the
Prairie style of architecture, it was at that time the smallest home
that Wright designed. William B. Greene was one of the founders of the
Barber-Greene Equipment Company. His college friend, Harry Robinson, was
one of Wright�s draftsmen, and Greene posed the question with Harry as
to Wright�s possible interest in a very modest home on his lot. Wright
was indeed interested. Greene stated that home building was then slack,
and Wright had fallen into disfavor with the public following the
abandonment of his wife and six children for another woman. His friend
Harry came out to the site to learn their requirements. They then
reviewed other Wright plans and sketches which were all too elaborate.
They preferred the gable roof over the flat roof, liked the casement
windows and fireplace. In 1926, Robinson designed an addition to the
west of the original house that nearly doubled the size of the house to
accommodate Greene's growing family. Mr. & Mrs. Greene later built a
Usonian retirement home behind their original Wright home in 1958. |