{"nrhp_refnum":"77000479","name":"Roloson, Robert, Houses","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"3213--3219 Calumet Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Chicago","county":"Cook County","state":"IL","lat":41.83568263700005,"lon":-87.61787858399998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1977-06-30","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A group of four party-wall brick row houses at 3213-3219 Calumet Avenue in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1894 for Robert W. Roloson and built as an investment.","why_significant":"The houses are described as the only surviving row houses by Frank Lloyd Wright and as examples of his earliest independent work. Their interior and exterior details resemble those of the Winslow House of the same year. The emphasis on interior space, especially the open stair halls under skylights, marks the beginning of an important quality in his architecture.","narrative":"Four connected brick row houses at 3213-3219 Calumet Avenue in Chicago were designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1894 for Robert W. Roloson, son-in-law of Wright's River Forest patron Edward Waller. Roloson built them as an investment. From the street they read as a single building with steep slate gables, buff Roman brick and dressed limestone trim. Each house has about 3,000 square feet of living space above a basement. Inside, an 18-foot-square stair hall rises to a skylight, with a fireplace and diamond-shaped balusters, and the floor levels are staggered front to rear. The design recalls English Tudor architecture combined with geometric detailing Wright learned from Sullivan. The houses are considered the only surviving row houses by Wright and an early example of his independent work. Later they were divided into apartments and the front balustrades were stripped away, though a new owner planned restoration.","period_of_significance":"1894","architect_builder":"Frank Lloyd Wright","architectural_style":"Combination of Jacobethan Revival, Sullivanesque, and pre-Prairie school elements","criteria":[],"status_note":"Described as deteriorated and altered. Only one of the four houses was occupied at the time of nomination, and the owner planned to restore them as single-family residences. A later telephone note says the houses may have lost integrity.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:35.969018-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/70/8921/28892170/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/77000479.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77000479/59b934b70e-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77000479/59b934b70e-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 2.0","author":"Payton Chung","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Robert_W_Roloson_Houses_(Adjusted).jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Payton Chung</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 2.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Robert_W_Roloson_Houses_(Adjusted).jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28892170","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roloson_Houses","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7361404"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/cook-county/roloson-robert-houses-77000479/"}