850 Sheridan Rd
Glencoe, IL 60022, USA

William A. Glasner House - National Register of Historic Places

Statement of Significance:

The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed William A. Glaser House, located at 850 Sheridan Road in Glencoe, is locally significant for National Register listing under Criterion C for architecture. Nestled into a bluff overlooking a steep ravine, the 1906 Glasner House is perhaps the only work of Wright's early years that truly relates to its site, and anticipates such renowned Wright homes as Taliesin and Fallingwater. The Glasner House could also serve as a prototype for Wright's "Usonian" designs of the 1930s, which were as widely acclaimed as their Prairie style predecessors. Thirty years before the first Usonian was erected, Wright did away with both the formal dining room and reception room in the Glasner House, where the main entry leads directly to the living room.

One of Wright's early, significant works, the Glasner House clearly exhibits features of his mature Prairie style, which signaled a new and highly influential era in American residential design. As characteristic of the Prairie style, the Glasner House is a low, ground-hugging structure with sweeping horizontal lines emphasized by its continuous board-and-batten siding, strips of casement windows, and a low, hipped roof with overhanging eaves. The use of natural colors and materials allows the home to blend in with its wooded surroundings.

Particularly exquisite are the fifty plus art glass windows featured throughout the Glasner House, which illustrate Wright's method of carefully integrating ornamentation into his buildings. Often referred to as the "Tree-of-Life" windows, the home's first floor casements feature large iridescent yellow/green squares and small orange squares. Other signature Prairie style elements include the home's massive, brick chimney and its secluded front entrance, which is tucked into a corner of the front (Sheridan Road) fascade. Today, the Glasner House retains the vast majority of its original architectural integrity, as well as its basic form and spatial relationship to its site.

The William A. Glasner House: History and Significance
The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Glasner House in Glencoe was completed in 1906 as a small, "servant less house" for William A. Glasner and his wife Cora. William Angel Glasner was born in September 1860 in Illinois, the son of John and Nancy J. (Webb) Glasner, both of whom were natives ofNew York. 15 At the age of twenty, William Glasner was living with his parents and sister in Belvedere, Illinois, working as a store clerk. 16 William and Canadian-born Cora Glasner were married in 1888 and lived at either 19 or 29 Ashland Boulevard from the 1890s until 1903. 17 Glasner worked at First National Bank in Chicago as a "Department Manager" from at least 1901 until 1917, when he retired.

Other than his home address and place of work, very little biographical information is known about Glasner. Unlike many prominent Chicago businessmen, he is not included in contemporary editions of directories such as A.N. Marquis's Who 's Who in Chicago, and none of his listings in Chicago's Blue Book directories from the 1890s and early 1900s include the names of social clubs that he may have joined. Lacking such clues as to his social connections, it is unknown how Glasner initially became acquainted with Wright.

Interestingly, Chicago's 1904 Lakeside Directory lists the Glasners as residing in Oak Park, which if true would explain his familiarity with Wright's residential work. At that time, Wright enjoyed a thriving practice in his Oak Park Home and Studio and his many homes in the community were well received in the architectural press. However, no record of the Glasners exists in the Oak Park phone directories from 1904 or previous years. In a 1963 interview, Rudolph and Elizabeth Nedved, the third and longest of the Glasner House owners, claimed that Glasner sponsored a competition for a servant-less house costing $5,000 which Wright won. 19 Unfortunately, they did not mention a source for this claim, which although it could be true, was not substantiated during research for this nomination.

Sometime in 1905, Glasner retained Wright to design a modest home in Glencoe, a suburb located twenty miles north of downtown Chicago, along the shores of Lake Michigan. Its approximately one-acre site was located along the west side of Sheridan Road, a winding thoroughfare that provided the only direct route between Chicago's North Shore suburbs and downtown Chicago. Although Wright produced drawings for the Glasner House in November 1905, the Glasners did not actually purchase the property unti129 Jan 1906.21 the Glasner House was likely built during the spring or summer of 1906, and a review of the completed home was included in the August 1906 issue of House Beautiful.

One of Wright's early, significant works, the Glasner House is clearly a building that is part of its environment, rather than a structure imposed upon its site. The low-slung building is nestled into a bluff overlooking a steep ravine that flows into nearby Lake Michigan. Due to its sloping site, the home had to accommodate different levels of ground; its basement windows are exposed only along the north elevation, which is lower than the south elevation, and originally fell abruptly downward to the ravine. The Glasner House's close relationship to its wooded site distinguishes it from other Wright houses of the early 1900s, which were typically designed for flat, rectangular urban and suburban lots, and anticipates such renowned Wright homes as Taliesin and Fallingwater. Chicago Tribune architecture critic Blair Kaman writes:

"Wright was in his late thirties when he designed the [Glasner] house; six years would pass before the construction of Wright 's own Taliesin house in Spring Green, Wisconsin, which, in keeping with the architect 's notion of building in harmony with nature, clings to the brow of the hill rather than sitting atop the hill. Fallingwater, whose concrete terraces echo the rocks that form a waterfall in western Pennsylvania was three decades off; the Glasner house anticipates these site-specific homes. "

As completed, the Glasner House was an unpretentious, single-story building with a broad, hipped roof broken only by a substantial brick chimney along the south elevation. It was clad with undressed, brown stained board-and-batten siding with stucco above. One contemporary writer described its rustic appearance as "a treatment that in its frank simplicity was suited to the woody environment and contrasted with the close standing groups oftrees."24 Beneath the wide eaves, an almost continuous series of Wright's signature art glass casement windows stretched around the house. Often referred to as the "Tree-of-Life" windows, the home's first floor casements feature large iridescent yellow/green squares and small orange squares.

The Glasner House originally featured two octagonal elements: a den along the front (Sheridan Road) elevation and a sewing room projecting from the north, or ravine, elevation. As noted by historian Henry Russell Hitchcock: "The striking contrast between the very low facade on one side and the deep base extending down into the ravine on the other, and the dramatic interest of the attached octagons make this house unique."25 The home's front octagonal space was especially dramatic, likening the home to a ship steaming eastward to nearby Lake Michigan. It is a feature that presages Wright's 1909 Robie House, whose projecting living room bay has been compared to the prow of a ship. Wright's plans also called for an octagonal tea-house to be connected to the home's veranda via a walkway. This extension of the house was never built, possibly due to budget constraints of the owner.

The octagonal form was a concept that Wright explored in the 1890s and was reminiscent of his earlier designs. The Thomas Gale and Robert Parker houses in Oak Park, as well as the Robert Edmond house in LaGrange, Illinois, all designed in 1892, were among Wright's earliest homes to include this picturesque feature. The 1897 George Furbeck House in Oak Park features twin octagonal towers flanking the front entrance, which enclosed a library on one side and a staircase on the other. Wright also used the octagon in the design of his own Oak Park Studio, which was completed in 1898. After 1900, Wright largely abandoned vertical elements and the octagon in his residential designs.

Despite such throwbacks to earlier picturesque designs, the Glasner House clearly exhibits characteristics of Wright's mature Prairie style. The building's use of natural colors and materials, such as stucco above brown-stained boards, are Prairie style hallmarks. Like the Glasner House, Wright's works with board and-batten siding were intended to harmonize with their unspoiled wooded settings, such as the Thomas H. Gale Cottage (1897) in Whitehall, Michigan, the architect's first residential use of this cladding. The River Forest Tennis Club in River Forest, Illinois and the George Madison Millard Residence in Highland Park, were two of Wright's other board-and-batten projects from 1906. Like many Prairie style houses with board-and-batten cladding, the wood used on the Glasner House is rough sawn in finish. According to historian William Storrer, smooth lumber is often used in the remodeling of many Wright homes in the mistaken notion that this originally rough wood was used for economy; in fact, it was preferred by the architect.

As typical of the Prairie style, the Glasner House is a low, ground-hugging structure with sweeping horizontal lines emphasized by its continuous board-and-batten siding, strips of casement windows, and low, hipped roof with overhanging eaves. After 1900, Wright abandoned double-hung windows in favor of casements and designed art glass windows featuring geometric designs. The use of exquisitely patterned windows, such as those featured throughout the Glasner House, was Wright's way of carefully integrating ornamentation into his buildings. Other signature Prairie style elements include the home 's massive, brick chimney and the design of a circuitous route to its secluded front entrance, which is tucked into a corner of the front (Sheridan Road) facade.

Wright typically used oversized urns and planters as a way of making greenery a permanent part of the fa9ade while symbolizing the integral relationship between architecture and nature. His original drawings for the Glasner House called for a planter beneath the north elevation's basement windows as well as a terrace wall and geometric urn near the front entrance. It is unknown, however, whether these elements were originally executed.

The plan of the Glasner House was dictated by the owners: William and Cora Glasner had no children and wanted a house that could be easily managed without a live-in servant. Although many publications refer to the residence as the Glaser's "summer cottage" it was likely their primary residence upon completion, as Chicago directories after 1906 list their home address as Glencoe. In an August 1906 House Beautiful article titled, "A House without a Servant," writer C.E. Percival writes:

"The Glasners were a childless couple and the home was intended for two people only, the husband and wife. It was to provide no accommodation for servants, as she intended to be queen of the kitchen as well as of every other part of her woman's domain. Consequently, she stipulated for simplicity of arrangement; for rooms all on one floor; for a pleasant, accessible kitchen; for every convenience that would lighten the housekeeper's duties; for plenty of sunny windows. "

To accommodate his clients' wishes, Wright designed the Glasner House as a modest, single-story house with a basement for utilities. The ground floor originally featured seven rooms: a living room, den, master bedroom, sewing room, bathroom, kitchen, and a large screened veranda. There was no formal dining room, which was unusual at the time. Instead, the veranda was intended for use as a dining room during the warm months, and a portion of the living room was to double as the dining room during the winter.

As typical with Wright's Prairie residences, the main living spaces of the Glasner House are raised above ground level to provide maximum privacy for the homeowners. Upon entering the building, one must walk up a few steps into the living room. Signature features in the living room include a large fireplace faced with the Roman brick that Wright typically preferred. The massive hearth is the symbolic center of the home, an idea Wright used in nearly all his Prairie houses. Other Wrightian features include the wide, wood banding placed along the living room's peaked ceiling. Wright's use of plaster walls painted in rich earth tones with dark wood trim was a great contrast to the gaudy wallpapers so prevalent during the Victorian era. Wright also knew how to dramatize spaces. At the Glasner House, the low ceiling of the central hallway makes the living room's high ceiling appear taller and wider.

Wright's philosophy of total integration between the interior and exterior of a building is clearly illustrated by the Glasner House. For example, the brown-stained, wide wood banding seen throughout the first floor of the home is very similar to its rustic-looking board-and-batten exterior cladding. Wright framed views of the home's lovely wooded site with bands of windows instead of floor to ceiling glass. The changing colors of trees on the property reflect onto the home's interior walls; green in summer; red, gold and brown in autumn. With their large squares the windows are sometimes called Tree-of-Life windows. According to Glasner House owner Lois Fineberg, the octagonal shaped sewing room that projects into the surrounding landscape provided the sensation of being in a tree house.

Henry Russell Hitchcock noted that the articulation of the Glasner House plan, which cannot be defined as a cross, Tor L shape like most Wright houses of this decade, foreshadowed later developments in Wright's domestic work. 30 In fact, the Glasner House plan could serve as a prototype for Wright's "Usonian" designs of the 1930s, which were as widely acclaimed as their Prairie style predecessors. Intended as modest, low-cost homes for the middle class, Usonians were small, one-story board-and batten clad structures with flat roofs and wide overhangs. Most notable was their spatial organization: Wright eliminated the dining room in favor of a table connecting the kitchen and living areas. Thirty years before the first Usonian was erected, Wright did away with both the formal dining room and reception room in the Glasner House, where the main entry leads directly to the living room and is diagonally opposite the kitchen. Interestingly, the Glasner House living room features several plate glass windows, which became Wright's window of choice when art glass became financially prohibitive during the 1930s.
The William A. Glasner House was considered distinctive enough for Wright to include a photograph of the building in his 1908 article titled, "In the Cause of Architecture," published in The Architectural Record with this description:
"A characteristic type of wooden dwelling, of which a number have been built to meet various simple requirements. In this case all the rooms and the porch are on one floor, with servants ' room and laundry below. The side walls beneath the windows are covered with undressed boards jointed with inserted battens. The frieze and underside of eaves are plastered. Total cost about $5,500. The whole fits its site on the edge of a picture square ravine.

A drawing and plan of the Glasner House also appeared in Wright's 1911 Wasmuth Portfolio with the following comments by Wright: "W.A. Glasner House, Glencoe, IL 1905, perspective and plan: designed to be occupied without servants although the room is provided for them below stairs. The living room is used as the dining room in winter. In summer the enclosed veranda is used.

Although the Glasners resided in their Glencoe home until1915, it appears from the chain of title that they owned it until 1923 and may have rented out during the intervening years. 33 Edward and Phyllis Brown resided in the home from 1920-21. Brown was a Vice President of First National Bank, where he would have known Glasner. From 1922-23, the home was occupied by Irving R. and Olive Allen. Irving Allen was in advertising. 34 In 1923, attorney Ralph G. Johansen and his wife Gertrude purchased the property, selling it in 1928 to Rudolph and Elizabeth Kimball Nedved for $10,000. 35 During the Depression of the 1930s the neighbor to the south offered to purchase the Glasner House with the intention of destroying it in order to get a view of the ravine. 6 The Nedveds refused his offer, residing in the home until Rudolph's death in 1971.

Rudolph Nedved (1896-1971) was born in Czechoslovakia, came to the United States in 1906, and served in the First World War. It is unknown exactly when he arrived in Chicago, although by 1915 he was living in the city's Pilsen neighborhood, a haven for people of Bohemian descent. During the early 1920s, Nedved and many other members of his immediate family lived in the suburb of Berwyn, just west of Chicago. He is first listed as a draftsman in Chicago's Lakeside Directory in 1916, at which time he worked at 4100 S. Kedzie Avenue. In 1921 Nedved graduated from Chicago's Armour Institute and started to practice architecture. During the early 1920s he worked for Tallmadge and Watson and also Schmidt, Garden and Martin.

In 1923, Nedved was awarded a $1,000 foreign traveling scholarship from the Architectural Sketch Club of Chicago. He served as Assistant Professor of Architecture in the School of Design at Armor from 1924-26. 8 It was during this time that he presumably met his future wife Elizabeth Kimball (1898-1969). An Illinois native, Elizabeth graduated from Armor in 1926 as one of only three women to have received a B.A. from the institution until that time. Elizabeth also received architectural training at the University of Illinois and worked in the interior decorating department of Marshall Fields. She also was a proficient painter; her water colors were exhibited at local and international competitions.

From 1926-28, the Nedveds began their architectural partnership of Nedved-Kimball and opened an architectural office in downtown Chicago's historic Marquette Building at Dearborn and Adams streets. 40 The couple later practiced out of their Glencoe home, where they eventually raised three children: Kimball, James R. and Antonia E. During their nearly fifty-year residence in the Glasner House, the Nedveds added extensive landscaping and finished the basement to accommodate their growing family. Elizabeth Nedved died in 1969, followed two years later by her husband. In 1971, the Glasner House was sold by the Nedved's estate to Henry and Lois Fineberg, who remained for the next 25 years. From 1997 to 2003, the residence was owned by Xerxes and Amy Bhote. (See Section 7 for a complete description of changes and/or preservation work undertaken by the Nedveds, Finebergs and Bhotes).

In early 2003, the Glasner House was again on the market and preservationists feared that a developer would erect a much larger house on the site and sell its 50 plus Wright-designed art glass windows. In March of that year, the Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois included the Glasner House on their list of the "Ten Most Endangered" properties in Illinois. Three months later, the home was purchased by the current preservation-minded owner who is working with Vinci-Hamp architects of Chicago to return the home, and especially its interior, to as close to its original condition as possible.