{"nrhp_refnum":"73000700","name":"Gale, Walter, House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1031 W. Chicago Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Oak Park","county":"Cook County","state":"IL","lat":41.89398888900007,"lon":-87.80191472699994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1973-08-17","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national","state","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A frame residence at 1031 West Chicago Avenue in Oak Park, Cook County, Illinois, commissioned in 1893 by Walter Gale and designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it the first independent work by Frank Lloyd Wright, begun soon after he left Adler & Sullivan. It shows Sullivan's influence and Wright's move toward a more disciplined geometric manner. It is also a well-designed, picturesque 1890s house with fine woodwork and a stair hall.","narrative":"This frame house at 1031 West Chicago Avenue in Oak Park, Illinois, was commissioned in 1893 by Walter Gale, a hardware store operator from one of the village's founding families. Its architect was Frank Lloyd Wright, whose own house stood half a block to the east. The commission appears to be the first Wright undertook after leaving Adler & Sullivan around June 1893. The house sits on a granite foundation and is sheathed mostly in narrow clapboards. Second-story casement windows keep most of their diamond-pane leaded glass, and the front hall is paneled in oiled birch with a stair railing of slender balusters. The original front porch survives only in part, and asphalt shingles have replaced the wood roof. Its style is described as a geometric Queen Anne, showing Sullivan's influence and Wright's informal planning. It was listed as an early step in Wright's development toward the mature early modern style that emerged around 1900.","period_of_significance":"1893","architect_builder":"Frank Lloyd Wright","architectural_style":"Geometric Queen Anne","criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed as occupied, in good condition, and used as a private residence; the porch has been largely lost and the roof is now asphalt shingle.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:35.733723-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/96/8920/28892096/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/73000700.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73000700/72a18f4369-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73000700/72a18f4369-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 2.5","author":"IvoShandor","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oak_Park_Il_Walter_Gale_House4.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">IvoShandor</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 2.5</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oak_Park_Il_Walter_Gale_House4.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"08001096","name":"Frank Lloyd Wright-Prairie School of Architecture Historic District (Boundary Increase)","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/illinois/frank-lloyd-wright-prairie-school-of-architecture-historic-district-boundary-inc-08001096/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28892096","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Gale_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1453596"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/cook-county/gale-walter-house-73000700/"}