Jessie and William Adams House

“With a firm conviction that the course of residential design had to be changed to meet the needs of the particular time, place, and circumstance for which it was created, Wright's experiments became essential elements in the contemporary debate over architectural theory and practice and led to the innovative work of Midwestern architects during the first decade of the twentieth century that became known as the Prairie School.”

“The William H. Winslow House was one of the first independent commissions Wright received after leaving the office of Adler & Sullivan. While the house was planned in 1893 and completed the next year, the stable that was built for the same client on the same property was not erected until late 1895 or early 1896.”

“Silsbee was noted for his picturesque residences in the Queen Anne style, and designed a number of houses for prominent clients in the city and suburbs. Although he had respect for Silsbee's talent, Wright felt that it was wasted; he became disillusioned with what he saw as a design system that was overly ornate and intellectually vacuous, which moved him to leave Silsbee the next year to join the firm of Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan.”

“Adams' wife Jessie continued to occupy their residence until her death in March of 1941. During the first fifteen years he was in business under his own name, William Adams built a wide range of structures for some of the most prominent architects in Chicago.”

“Wright had likely met the architect through his uncle, a minister who had commissioned Silsbee to design two new Unitarian churches, one for Wright's family in Helena, Wisconsin, and the other for his uncle's congregation on the South Side of Chicago.”

“Essential in establishing the horizontal orientation of the overall design of the facade, the porch roof is supported on two piers that stand nearly 36 feet apart. This exceptional clear span was built without the benefit of intermediate structural supports, and is indicative of Wright's continually testing the limits of materials and technology for dramatic emphasis.”

“In addition to its interest relative to its design and its architect, this structure is unique in that its original owner was a contractor who had previously built a number of residences from designs by Wright.”

“The Joseph Husser House, which formerly stood at 730 West Buena Avenue in Chicago, was the next structure on which documentation confirms that Adams worked with Wright. Built in 1899 on the lakefront in Uptown and erected at an estimated cost of $18,000, the Husser House was the largest and most expensive residence Wright had completed up to that time.”

“The Husser House was one of the first of Wright's designs to break out of a basic rectangular form. The rooms were here transformed into interior spaces that flowed without the interruption of unnecessary partitions, extending beyond the limits of the rectangle in plan and elevation.”