Prairie-Style Homes: Everything You Need to Know About Frank Lloyd Wright’s First Design Era (2024)

Rachel Davies

August 15, 2024 at 9:42 PM·5 min read

Photo: Will Pryce/Construction Photography/Avalon/Getty Images

Long before he ventured to Arizona to set up Taliesin West, before designing the Guggenheim, and even before Fallingwater was built, architect Frank Lloyd Wright was designing Prairie-style homes. The early 20th-century structures were inspired by the flat landscapes of the Midwest, where Wright was born and raised. The legendary architect had a prolific career, but still, some of these early works remain among his most famous structures. Below, we break down the history of Prairie-style homes, key architectural elements, and some of the most important homes created during the architect’s Prairie period.

History of Prairie Style Homes

Though Frank Lloyd Wright is by far the most famous architect who created homes in the Prairie style, the American architecture style was developed by a variety of architects, not just Wright. As H. Allen Brooks covers in his book, The Prairie School, many of these architects worked in the lofts of Steinway Hall in downtown Chicago, where Wright himself worked after starting his own practice. Their invigorating discussions on the future of architecture eventually led to the development of the Prairie style.

Prairie-Style Homes: Everything You Need to Know About Frank Lloyd Wright’s First Design Era (1)

The style was inspired by the low, flat look of the wide-open rural prairie, but “most of the Prairie-style houses were built not on the prairie but on suburban or city lots,” Dixie Legler Guerrero writes in Prairie Style: House and Gardens by Frank Lloyd Wright and the Prairie School. By 1898, Wright had set up a studio attached to his home in Oak Park, a suburb of Chicago. It was in this studio that many of his most memorable Prairie homes were conceptualized, including the Willits House and the Robie House.

Architectural Characteristics of Prairie-Style Homes

From the outside, Prairie-style homes are identifiable by their use of horizontal lines and overhanging eaves. John Waters, the preservation programs manager at the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy—an organization that advocates and assists in the preservation of Wright structures—points out that Prairie period homes were much simpler than the common High Victorian architecture of the day. “High Victorian architecture had a lot of pinnacles and bays and complicated roofs, a lot of applied ornament,” Waters explains.

Prairie-Style Homes: Everything You Need to Know About Frank Lloyd Wright’s First Design Era (2)

Open floor plans were common in Prairie-style homes, which “was becoming very much a part of late 19th-century house planning, but Wright really made a fine art of how these rooms [flowed,]” Waters explains. Wood detailing, built-in furniture, and art glass windows are all key elements that appear as interior details in Wright’s Prairie period homes.

Notable examples of Prairie-Style Homes

The Willits House

Prairie-Style Homes: Everything You Need to Know About Frank Lloyd Wright’s First Design Era (3)

Built in 1901, the Willits House was “regarded as the first great Prairie house,” according to Guerrero’s Prairie Style. The home’s cruciform plan uses architectural elements for soft separation in the open concept plan, rather than employing a closed floor plan. Wright designed furniture for the home, in addition to the built-in cabinetry, seating, and sideboards, according to Frank Lloyd Wright: Building for Democracy, by Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer. The Highland Park, Illinois, home is not open to the public.

The Robie House

Prairie-Style Homes: Everything You Need to Know About Frank Lloyd Wright’s First Design Era (4)

Located in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago, the Robie House is arguably the most significant of all of Wright’s Prairie period buildings. The 9,000-square-foot home, which was completed in 1910, features art glass windows and French doors, wood built-ins, and a brick exterior. It was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List by the World Heritage Committee in 2019 alongside seven other Wright structures, taking the spot as the oldest home in the group.

The Martin House

Prairie-Style Homes: Everything You Need to Know About Frank Lloyd Wright’s First Design Era (5)

The vast majority of Wright’s Prairie period homes are located in the Midwest, but a handful of structures from that era of his career are located in New York State, including the Martin House in Buffalo. A nearly three-decade-long restoration process on the house was completed in 2019, bringing the home back to its original grandeur for tourists to experience.

Frequently Asked Questions

Prairie-Style Homes: Everything You Need to Know About Frank Lloyd Wright’s First Design Era (6)

What is the difference between Craftsman- and Prairie-style homes?

Both Prairie School and Craftsman-style homes were influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement, so the styles certainly have some notable similarities. Both share an appreciation for craftsmanship and natural materials, but the exteriors are far different. Craftsman bungalows typically feature gabled roofs and siding, while Prairie-style homes generally have flat roof lines and stucco or brick exteriors.

What is the difference between a Prairie style and a Usonian house?

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie homes were created in the early years of his independent practice (roughly from 1900 to 1914), while the Usonian home designs came later, in the 1930s through the 1950s. Usonian homes had much less ornament than the Prairie-style homes, and they were almost all one-story homes. “When you get to Usonian, it becomes much more about the materials that he’s using,” Waters explains. “Which is not to say that the materials are not important in the early work, by any stretch of the imagination, but it really comes through in a lot of the Usonian work—the beauty of these materials are highlighted as a part of the aesthetic of the building. The amount of ornament, as we would think of it, becomes very, very limited.”

Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest