5132 S Woodlawn Ave
Chicago, IL 60615, USA

Isadore H. Heller House - National Register of Historic Places

Statement of Significance:

According to Paul Sprague, Assistant Professor of Architectural History at the University of Chicago, the Heller House is of special significance because it is the finest of a group of buildings that initiate, in 1897, a transitional period in Frank Lloyd Wright's work a Period that would culminate, in 1900, in a style of architectural design that was entirely Wright's own.

The Heller House contains elements typical of 19th century eclecticism, yet prefigures Wright's new geometric aesthetic.

At a time in American cities, when residential district s showed a conglomeration of architectural styles, the Heller House included, to a limited extent, historically derived elements. This i s evidenced by the third-floor loggia as well as by the main South entrance flanked with columns and capped with quatrefoils. But with the house, Wright was abandoning the more picturesque and traditional styles that he had learned from his first master, Joseph Lyman Silsbee. In place of them Wright substituted the simple geometric rectilinear forms of Louis Sullivan,

Although these forms are ultimately derived from Sullivan, Wright has so synthesized and reworked them in this house that the result is a distinct and original design approaching Wright's late r modern.'' architectural style, commonly known as the predominantly residential "Prairie School" style. For example, the Heller House has a distinct horizontal emphasis. In addition, the two principal rooms, living room and dining room, assume the cruciform shape, which is slightly revealed in the outside of the house by short rectangular projections of wall corresponding to the arms of a cross, the shape Wright was to use so frequently in the Prairie House. Also, interior and exterior massing are the counterparts of one another, still one more hallmark of the style.

Despite conventional elements that can easily be traced to stylistic currents of the times, in his own day Frank Lloyd Wright was considered a revolutionary. This was proved throughout a very long career.

Wright was the father of the "Prairie School" style of architecture, called this because i t was designed to fi t the expanse of middle-western terrain. In the Prairie house roofs were usually broad and extended far beyond the wall of the prairie house. Al l details were suited to the skill, equipment and materials at hand. The plans were practical and open. Outside and inside began to relate; a new style was evolving, a regional style and an American style, but one that was to have great influence in Europe. In 1911, Wright had the unusual honor of seeing a large, beautiful portfolio of his works published in Germany by the Wasmuth press. Included in this collection were renderings of the Heller House.

Wright was also the stylistic father of a new group of architects. By 1897, the Chicago Chapter in the history of skyscraper was almost over. The age of innovative commercial and industrial commissions was drawing to a close, and the age of innovative residential commissions was beginning, Frank Lloyd Wright was to become the spiritual leader of such insurgent Midwest architect as Walter Burley Griffin, William Drummond, George Maher, Barry Byrne, William Purcell, George Elmslie and others.

The Heller House is significant because of its style, because of its architect and because of its location in the City of Chicago.

Hyde Park, where the Heller House, is located, was and is an area of substantial upper-class dwellings surrounded by beautiful wooded gardens. After annexation to the city in l889» the establishment of the University of Chicago in I892, and the Columbian Exposition the next year, Hyde Park and Kenwood, its neighbor to the north flourished.

Following the Depression and World War II, the area did begin to deteriorate. But neighborhood groups began to organize. Initial activities were modest in scope, concentrating on public safety and community services. I t soon became apparent that only a comprehensive rehabilitation program, with government assistance, could stay the spreading blight. The 856-acre Hyde Park-Kenwood 6irea has received national attention as one of the firs t and most successful conservation type urban renewal projects in the country. Execution of the project began in 1959; it continues today.

Isidore Heller House, 5132 South Woodlawn Ave Chicago, Cook County, IL

The house was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for a narrow city lot in the Hyde Park district of Chicago. It belongs to a stylistic category of Wright`s work that has been termed "monitor" referring to the third story which is raised above the main eaves and capped by a smaller hipped roof. The arcade and frieze at this story display elaborate Sullivanesque ornament and sculptural figures, the latter executed by Richard Bock, an Oak Park sculptor who collaborated with Wright. In 1961, the building was named a Chicago Architectural Landmark.