{"nrhp_refnum":"76000699","name":"Millikan, Robert A., House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"5605 Woodlawn Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Chicago","county":"Cook County","state":"IL","lat":41.79274282100005,"lon":-87.59646248999996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1976-05-11","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1976-05-11","areas_of_significance":["Science"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-story brick house at 5605 Woodlawn Avenue in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, built around 1906-1907 to designs by the Chicago firm of Tallmadge and Watson. It is one of three houses in a row.","why_significant":"The house is nationally significant as the Chicago residence of physicist Robert A. Millikan from about 1907-08 to 1921, the period of his most important contributions to physics, including the oil drop experiments and the photoelectric effect work that earned him the 1923 Nobel Prize. It is also cited as an unaltered example of residential work by a firm of secondary importance in Chicago architecture.","narrative":"This three-story brick house at 5605 Woodlawn Avenue in Chicago was built around 1906-1907 and designed by the firm of Tallmadge and Watson. It is one of three houses in a row. Its plain flat front is broken by a two-story stucco and beam projection above a recessed entrance, and nearly continuous windows on the third story give it a Prairie School flavor. Inside, a side hall plan holds living, dining and kitchen spaces on the first floor, with bedrooms and baths above. The interior is neither ornamented nor detailed, and the house has seen no significant alterations. Physicist Robert A. Millikan lived here from about 1907 or 1908 until 1921, when he left Chicago for California. During those years he began his oil drop experiments, which demonstrated the existence of the electron, and tested Einstein's photoelectric theory. He received the 1923 Nobel Prize in physics and later led the California Institute of Technology. The house was recognized for its association with this work.","period_of_significance":"approximately 1907-1921","architect_builder":"Thomas F. Tallmadge and Vernon S. Watson","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition listed as excellent and original site; the house has undergone no significant alterations since construction. Marked occupied and in use as a private residence.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:35.633787-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/80/8915/28891580/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/76000699_NHL.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76000699/f2922ce4a6-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76000699/f2922ce4a6-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM)","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:20080909_Robert_A._Millikan_House.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM)</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:20080909_Robert_A._Millikan_House.JPG"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"12000040","name":"Chicago Park Boulevard System Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/illinois/chicago-park-boulevard-system-historic-district-12000040/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28891580","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A._Millikan_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7341272"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/cook-county/millikan-robert-a-house-76000699/"}