Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studios Tour
Last May, I was lucky enough to spend a beautiful, sunny day touring the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio. This was an unplanned event for us. We were out and decided that it was a good day to make a visit. Frank Lloyd Wright and his family lived in Oak Park, Cook County, Illinois. Just about 10 minutes (depending on traffic) from our home. There really is no reason why we had not taken this tour yet. Chicago and the surrounding suburbs are full of great history and we continue to miss out by not visiting these places.
A bit of research into Frank and his family
Doing a small amount of research on the family, I found that they lived in Cicero, Cook, IL1 for some time. It was nice to see that just next door was his mother Anna and two of her daughters.
By 1910, the census records show the family in Oak Park, Cook, IL. In the census record above, you can see the Frank’s mother, Anna is again next door. To be specific, her house is located just behind Frank’s. In the video below are a few pictures of the house that Anna lived in, as it was the original house on the property. Today, this house is offices and storage for the Frank Lloyd Trust, which operates the tours.
I was a bit perplexed because all of the history on Frank and his family showed they lived in Oak Park in the 1890’s. After doing a bit of research I learned that some of Oak Park was actually part of Cicero and in 1902 the area was disengaged from Cicero into Oak Park2. Within just an hour of research time on this family shows that you never know what you will learn once you start researching something. Before assuming something, it is smart to look at the boundaries and if they changed between the census’ that way you will know for certain if the family moved or not.
Year: 1900; Census Place: Cicero, Cook, Illinois; Roll: 292; Page: 20A;Enumeration District: 1146; FHL microfilm: 1240292 ↩
