{"nrhp_refnum":"04000421","name":"Emery, Jr., William H., House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"281 Arlington","address_restricted":false,"city":"Elmhurst","county":"DuPage County","state":"IL","lat":41.89422293500007,"lon":-87.93844937499995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2004-05-12","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A single-family Prairie School house at 281 Arlington in Elmhurst, Illinois, designed by Walter Burley Griffin and completed in late 1903 for William H. Emery, Jr. and his bride Marjorie Wilder.","why_significant":"It was Walter Burley Griffin's first independent residential commission and marks the start of a career considered second only to Frank Lloyd Wright's in the Prairie School. The design shows a mature, complex Prairie style with a multi-level open plan around a central chimney, and it retains good integrity after careful restoration.","narrative":"Built in 1902 and 1903 on Arlington Avenue in Elmhurst, a western Chicago suburb, this brick and stucco house was designed by Walter Burley Griffin for his friend and classmate William H. Emery, Jr. It was a wedding gift from the groom's father. Griffin was then working in Frank Lloyd Wright's Oak Park studio, and this was his first independent house commission. The design uses a low concrete base, brick corner piers with hidden sleeping balconies, banded windows, wood trim and a high gable roof with extended ridges. Inside, rooms are arranged on interlocking levels around a large central chimney, with art glass and light oak trim throughout. Later changes included a 1914 garage and sunroom addition and a painted, then sandblasted, brick exterior. Restoration has since rebuilt the terrace, chimney, roof and brickwork. The house is recognized as an early work of a leading Prairie School architect and as a mature expression of that style.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Walter Burley Griffin","architectural_style":"Prairie School","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Still used as a single-family dwelling; brickwork, roof, chimney and original terrace have been restored, and a 1914 garage and sunroom addition was removed.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:37.502863-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/54/8927/28892754/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/04000421.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/04000421/2f8ca443bc-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/04000421/2f8ca443bc-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"G LeTourneau","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_H._Emery,_Jr._House_01.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">G LeTourneau</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_H._Emery,_Jr._House_01.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28892754","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_H._Emery_Jr._House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q8010387"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/dupage-county/emery-jr-william-h-house-04000421/"}