The Early Years

Frank Lloyd Wright was born on June 8, 1867 in Richland Center, Wisconsin. He spent a few semesters in the Engineering School at the University of Wisconsin before leaving for Chicago in 1887. At the age of twenty, he was hired as an apprentice in the office of J. Lyman Silsbee who designed All Souls' Unitarian Church where Wright's uncle was minister. The young architect's first work was nominally a Silsbee commission --the Hillside Home School built for his aunts in 1888 near Spring Green, Wisconsin.

While construction was underway on the Hillside Home School, Wright went to work for the Chicago firm of Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan, working as a draftsman on the Auditorium Building, which, at the time of completion in 1890, was the largest building in Chicago. He remained with that firm until 1893, during which time he absorbed Sullivan's influence and designed several houses, including one for himself in Oak Park, Illinois that was constructed with Sullivan's financial assistance.

"Moonlighting" on his own commissions led to a break with Sullivan in 1893, and Wright set up a separate practice. His first commissions were primarily for the design of private homes in the more affluent suburbs of Chicago and include the W. H. Winslow house of 1893-94 in River Forest, Illinois --considered by Wright to be his "first." Unfortunately, many of the buildings he designed around the turn of the century have not survived.

Links to photographs and other materials:

Auditorium Building. Discussion and photographs.

Hillside Home School I. Photographs.

Wright Home & Studio (1889), Oak Park, Illinois. Official site of Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust, photographs and text.

Wright Home. Color photograph.

Wright Home and Studio. Color photographs.

James Charnley House (1891), Chicago, Illinois. The Charnley-Persky House is now the home of the Society of Architectural Historians, and their web site includes a history of the house, floor plans, and interior and exterior photographs.

Charnley-Persky House. A Virtual tour by Lynn Harvey.

Thomas H. Gale House (1892), Oak Park, Illinois. B/W photograph.

Gale House. Color photograph.

Robert P. Parker House (1892), Oak Park, Illinois. B/W photograph.

Parker House. Color photograph.

Walter Gale House (1893), Oak Park, Illinois. Color photograph.

Francis Wooley House (1893), Oak Park, Illinois. B/W photograph.

William H. Winslow Residence (1893), River Forest, Illinois. Color photographs.

Francisco Terrace Apartments, Archway (1895), Chicago Illinois. Apartments demolished (1974), Color photographs.

Chauncey Williams House (1895), River Forest, Illinois. B/W photograph.

Williams House. Color photographs of exterior.

Nathan Moore House (1895), Oak Park, Illinois. B/W photographs of orignial house destroyed by fire in 1922.

Moore House. Color photographs of exterior; another view.

H.R. Young House (1895), Oak Park, Illinois. B/W photograph.

Romeo and Juliet Windmill (1896), Spring Green, Wisconsin. Color photographs and discussion.

Romeo and Juliet Windmill. Color photographs (part of Taliesin site).

Romeo and Juliet Windmill. Color photographs.

Harry Goodrich House (1896), Oak Park, Illinois. Color photographs of exterior.

George Furbeck House (1897), Oak Park, Illinois. B/W photograph.

Rollin Furbeck House (1897), Oak Park, Illinois. Color photographs of exterior.

River Forest Golf Club (1898-1901), River Forest, Illinois . (demolished) Drawing.

Joseph Husser House (1899), Chicago, Illinois. B/W photograph.

Frank Lloyd Wright in Oak Park, Illinois (1889-1909) features a "walking" photo tour and discussion of the residences built in Oak Park, including the Wright Home & Studio. Site also contains a biography that focuses on Wright's flamboyant personal life.

Visit Wright on the Web Bookstore
featuring books and other materials
about Frank Lloyd Wright and his works.