300 Scottswood Rd
Riverside, IL 60546, USA

Avery Coonley House - National Register of Historic Places

Statement of Significance:

The Avery Coonley House, erected in 1907 - 09 , is an enlarged version of a "prairie house" built on a magnificent scale and on a very ample suburban lot; it is a culminating masterpiece of Frank Lloyd Wright's early and fertile period, 1900-1913 . The Coonley House, together with the Robie House (a brick "prairie house" adapted to a city-sized lot), summarize Wright's principles of domestic architecture to that date. In Wright ' s own opinion, the Coonley House was "the most successful of my houses from My stand - point."

In the design of this large U-shaped two-story residence Wright had his greatest opportunity to illustrate his concepts of the centrifugal plan and t h e raised basement. The Coonley House ' slow strong horizontal lines, low- pitched overhanging roofs to shade windows and balconies, bro ad central chimneys and fireplaces, free flowing interior spaces, the combination of windows in continuous strips, the use of out swinging casement windows to associate the interior with the outdoors, the use of continuous inside-to-outside walls to join the house to its garden, and the harmonious blending of the structure with the site, forecast the major trends in house design during the following 60 years.

The Coonley House has been divided into two separate residences. Despite this change, the exterior of the building has retained its original character very well and the interior alterations in the major rooms have been few and tastefully done.

History
In 1906 Mr. and Mrs. Avery Coonley acquired a large lot in Riverside for the purpose of building a residence. After a careful study of other houses in the area designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, they went to the architect at his Oak Park workshop and commissioned him to design their horne. Mrs. Coonley informed Wright that they saw in his houses "the countenances of principle. " The architect wrote later: "This was to me a great and sincere compliment. So, I put the best of me into the Coonley house. I feel now, looking back upon it, that the building was the best I could do them in the way of a house.

Wright completed his designs in 1907 and construction began in 1908. All of the furniture and fittings of the house were also custom-made to Wright's designs. Because of the size and furnishings, the Coonley House was long in construction, but it was practically completed before Wright left Oak Park in 1909 .

Around 1960 the large Coonley house and garden lot was subdivided into four separate properties under separate ownership: the stables and garage, the gardener ' s cottage, and the Coonley residence itself was divided into two separate dwellings. The Coonley House still functions as two separate residences and is not open to visitors.