{"nrhp_refnum":"66000318","name":"Willard, Frances, House","other_names":["Rest Cottage"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1730 Chicago Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Evanston","county":"Cook County","state":"IL","lat":42.04834394400007,"lon":-87.67927239999995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1966-10-15","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1965-06-23","areas_of_significance":["Social History"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Frances Willard House, known as \"Rest Cottage,\" is a two-story, 17-room Carpenter Gothic frame house at 1730 Chicago Avenue, Evanston, Cook County, Illinois. Josiah Willard built it in 1865 and an addition followed in 1878.","why_significant":"It was the home of Frances Willard, who raised the temperance movement to national significance and led the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and its world organization. It also served as the longtime WCTU headquarters. The form also notes its Downing-influenced cottage design and early use of concrete foundation walls.","narrative":"Rest Cottage, at 1730 Chicago Avenue in Evanston, Illinois, was the home of temperance leader Frances Willard and later the headquarters of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Her father, Josiah Willard, built the first section in 1865, working from English cottage plates influenced by Andrew Jackson Downing's pattern books. Its foundation walls used an early, crude form of concrete. An 1878 addition created a double dwelling, and later work added bay windows and enlarged the study. The two-story, 17-room house is Carpenter Gothic, with board and batten siding, bargeboard trim, six porches, stained and leaded glass, and oak and walnut woodwork. Willard lived in Evanston for forty years, and from here her work helped make temperance a national cause. She became president of the national WCTU in 1879 and of the world organization in 1891. The WCTU acquired the house from her estate and has kept it largely as she left it.","period_of_significance":"1865-1898","architect_builder":"Designed and built by Josiah Willard, Frances Willard's father, from English cottage plates in Downing's pattern books","architectural_style":"Carpenter Gothic","criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed as in good to excellent condition and occupied; the WCTU has preserved the exterior and interior with its furnishings as Miss Willard left them.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:35.162921-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/94/8915/28891594/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/66000318_NHL.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/66000318/ffa4be836a-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/66000318/ffa4be836a-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Thshriver","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Willard,_Frances_House_1.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Thshriver</a>, <a href=\"https://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:Willard,_Frances_House_1.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28891594","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Willard_House_(Evanston,_Illinois)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5479012"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/cook-county/willard-frances-house-66000318/"}