And another one bites the dust

DLM2000-GW

4 years ago

GLENCOE, IL — With the clock ticking on the potential demolition of an early Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in Glencoe, a preservation group is soliciting proposals to relocate the structure in order to save it.

Although its new owners have offered no assurances they will not raze the historic home, at least one North Shore resident has expressed an interest in moving the Sherman Booth Cottage from its current location at 239 Franklin Road.

Wright, the most famous architect in American history and among the 20th century's most influential, designed the home in 1913 as a temporary home for Booth and his family. Booth, a founding member of the Glencoe Park District, was Wright's lawyer and business partner in the development of the the Ravine Bluffs subdivision, now listed on the the National Register of Historic Places. Elizabeth Booth, his wife, was a leading suffragette who helped make Illinois the first state east of the Mississippi to grant voting rights to white women.

After the Booths moved into a completed home at 265 Sylvan Road, their one-story cottage was moved about 300 feet to the south in late 1916 or early 1917, according to the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, which, a century later, is looking for someone interested in moving the house again.

"While a number of modifications were made to the Cottage at the time of the original move, as well as since then, the signature elements of the Cottage's design, elements that tie it to Wright's later Usonian houses, shine through," according to a statement from the group accompanying a request for proposals for potential relocation "These elements include its flat roof, banded windows and strong horizontal lines."

My bolding of text above, and therein lies one of the huge problems for Wright houses in the Chicago area. Listing pictures HERE

Featured Answer

ILoveRed

4 years ago

After looking at the town and location...there’s no way they are not going to tear it down. It’s a darn shame. If they got the property for 0.5 million looking at the size of the lot and the surrounding homes it seems they got ..dare I say..a bargain.

If you zoom in on the area, there is another FLW home very near to this one.

We live in central Illinois and folks are fleeing...and fleeing fast.

can‘t imagine what the property taxes are up there on some of those monster homes. DLM..you were smart to get out when you did.

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Comments (9)

just_janni
4 years ago
It's adorable. And there's no way in heck I'd want a flat roof in Chicago....
new-beginning
4 years ago
a flat roof in Chicago is exactly why my Dad's family moved to Texas!
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Don't give up hope. I had 4 cases of RRD several years in a row, but this year, have had none at all. So good times may be coming yet. Actually, I thought I might have a new case of RRD this year--sinking heart! But somehow it didn't quite look like it. So I did some severe pruning in that area with the affected growth--and everything seems to have grown back normally. Since that rose was on the property line, I'm wondering if my neighbor, who runs a mow and blow service, didn't maybe spray some Round-up next to his garage that has wild weedlike climbers going up it. That garage isn't that far from the property line where the affected rose grows. Kind of suspicious, don't you think? As to the rose, I pruned it rather late in the season, so I probably won't know for sure if it is all right until I see next spring's new growth. Everyone cross your fingers for me and my rose! Kate
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not with those pics ... how about an overview pic from the street .... and the amount of sun on the spots you want filled ... the pic thing has something to do with how you orient you ipad.. and whether it is set.. internally for portrait or landscape pix ... those 2 variables.. argue with the GW pix system ... didnt you use PBucket.. or some such before??? .. i dont seem to think you had to keep replying to your own post.. to add pix???? of what significance.. are the ones that died... perhaps the largest potted plants you bought??? any recollection of how pot bound a 6 foot arb was... i think i see them flying in the sky in the stop sign pic..... did you do any root surgery.. etc... defining the death.. includes IDing all the variables..... and i do recall.. some of your stuff came from bigboxstore ... which sometimes means.. lower quality .... that is... if you care to wonder why they died... my best guess.. with no facts.. was improper DEEP watering thru the whole mangled root system they had.... much diagnosis can be made.. when you pull them from the earth ... ... was there any new root growth??? .. if not.. they were dead when you planted them.. and just stayed green... until the heat of summer hit... is the bottom of the old root ball bone dry ... etc ... we.. meaning you.. can improve watering.. if that was the issue... but you cant do anything about bad stock in the first place... except not buy plants thats roots go round and round the pot... yes.. i pull plants out of pots.. and check.. before i buy them ... knowledge is power ... ken
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I work with horses, and in the South, and I was hot natured BRFORE the hormones started making me hot, so I wear and wash a LOT of shirts. I do not like plain crew neck T-shirts, I prefer a V-neck. AND, I cannot pay 29.95 for something that may get a medicine stain on it the first time I wear it. Old Navy carried some that I wore so long they frayed around the neck! JCP had some good ones that were not quite as sturdy, but more available in my small town. Neither are available anymore, ON has a shirt with the same label, but it is translucent, and JCP just doesn't have them any more. I hate clothes shopping now!! In my "better" (non-barn) clothes, I just wear the ones I have, and luckily I am a good mixer-matcher. You are not alone,daisychain01, and I complain EVERY time I go in(yes, like a crazy person, I go in , thinking something will have changed!). Nancy
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Your hard work certainly shows! Beautiful garden. One of the local hosta buffs puts 2-4 inches of manure on every year. You'd think the plants would get buried, but they look terrific. This was the first year I've had a lot of hosta seedlings. I tried to move them to one spot, but there were so many I gave up. If they live but are all plain and boring, there's always the assorted clubs asking for plant donations.
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Mark Bischak, Architect
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
After looking at the listing images, I think the list of those willing to move the structure would be very short.
DLM2000-GW
Original Author
4 years ago
ILR you are so right about our timing of leaving - we feel lucky and have several friends who are either stuck or had to accept significantly less than they had counted on for their next phase. Values are tanking fast and high end new construction spec seems to be the worst - I expect a lot of long time builders will go under with the huge carrying costs. There is good reason to flee and honestly it breaks my heart. I will always be a Midwestern fish out of water to some extent here in NC. Taxes are one of the reasons we moved. When we hit 17k we said enough and we weren't at the top end of taxes by any means. That FLW house is in Cook County and New Trier school district so taxes are even higher. I grew up there and just looked at my childhood home online - taxes are 28k and that's not a grand house at all.
One Devoted Dame
4 years ago
This does not give me confidence in any home's ability to retain intrinsic value, or -- as folks of my generation (GenX) have been told -- increase in value, over the long term. I mean, if a beloved, famous architect's creation is being tossed, valued at $0, that doesn't bode well for anyone else, really.

Hmmm. I guess the sooner I accept that houses aren't financial investments, the better off I'll be, eh? Bummer.
bpath
4 years ago
This is the problem with architecture as an art form. It isn't portable! And structures especially are subject to environmental factors that can't be controlled.

An amazing MCM house near me is coming down soon. According to the new owners, who actually did want to salvage it, the roof and systems were in too bad of shape. I saw the house at an open house and it did need work, the roof was already known to have problems. But wow, was it gorgeous. The owners are supposedly saving some elements and fixtures to reuse, which makes me happy. And if not, I'm keeping an eye out myself for the demolition sale!
ILoveRed
4 years ago
DLM...i agree with everything you said. How sad that so many are fleeing our beautiful state because of the taxes and so many other issues. And so many cant afford to keep paid off homes because they can’t pay their real estate taxes. Our taxes downstate aren’t nearly as bad...but who knows what will happen. 28k for a less than grand house! Wow. I know those upstate schools are unreal and top rated. The salaries and pension cost are too. It will all implode eventually....especially with all of the folks like you packing up and moving out. another midwestern girl here. So, I know what you mean about how sad it is.

my sil graduated from New Trier. Great school district. btw.
One Devoted Dame
4 years ago
And so many cant afford to keep paid off homes because they can’t pay their real estate taxes.

Same thing happening where I am... Taxes are soaring, but it's because we're experiencing a huge wave of folks moving in from wealthier states, driving up demand and property values.

Which sounds great and all, but there are quite a few older people on fixed incomes who have owned their homes outright for several years, yet can't afford the taxes. They either move out of the neighborhoods they've lived in -- and loved -- for decades, or they lose their homes to the tax man. It's crazy. :-(

And another one bites the dust

ILoveRed

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just_janni

new-beginning

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