In Kankakee, Illinois, one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s original Prairie-style designs has hit the market for the first time in nearly half a century.
The home has been privately owned by the same family since 1976 — and its listing images offer a rare glimpse inside the craftsmanship of one of the nation’s most celebrated architects.
Victoria Krause Schutte of @properties Christie’s International Realty holds the listing, which is seeking $779,000.
Wright constructed the Hickox House for a man named Warren Hickox and his wife in 1900. That was the same year he built the adjacent Bradley House for Warren’s sister, Anna Hickox Bradley, and her husband, B. Harley Bradley, according to Crain’s Chicago Business.
“In the ‘70s, the owners of the Bradley house had transformed it into an elegant restaurant and museum that took wonderful advantage of Frank Lloyd Wright’s eye for beauty and light,” current owner Jennifer St. Clair, whose parents purchased the Hickox House when she was 15, told The Post. “The owners became close friends of my parents and often invited them over to dine at the Yesteryear Restaurant. These were such special nights with elegant meals served, a treat beyond imagination.”
This listed home, St. Clair added, gets stunning light at day’s start and end, “when the sun streams through the leaded glass windows,” casting reflections across the walls.
Other highlights of the 3,277-square-foot property include a covered front porch, a nook off the main entrance and built-in seating lining one wall of the parlor.
In the main living space, an office, a Roman brick fireplace-equipped living room and a dining area flow seamlessly into each other, with all four bedrooms located upstairs.
There are two full bathrooms and one half.
Although the Hickox House features a steep, Victorian-style pitched roof — an aesthetic Wright moved away from — the property’s facade is otherwise easily identifiable as his.
Overall, the home “fits into a turning point for Wright,” Frank Lloyd Wright Buildings Conservancy preservation programs manager John Waters told Crain’s, representing a step towards the “simplicity and clarity” seen in his later work.
