Dana-Thomas House
- Architect
- Frank Lloyd Wright
- Year
- 1902
- City
- Springfield, IL
The Dana-Thomas House is a Prairie style house at 301 East Lawrence Avenue, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built for the philanthropist Susan Lawrence Dana starting in mid-1902, completed in December 1904. Wright built it around part of an existing 1860s house on the site, which Dana's father Rheuna Lawrence had acquired in 1868. The main house connects to a library-gallery via a link, and the estate also includes a carriage house. Dana used the house to host large gatherings and later religious meetings.
the building
Built around an older house. Rather than clearing the site, Wright designed the new house around part of the existing 1860s house that Dana's father had built — Dana was restricted by the terms of her father's will from simply renovating it outright, so Wright's design incorporated the earlier structure into his new Prairie composition.
Main house and library-gallery. The estate is organized as a main house at the corner of Lawrence Avenue and Fourth Street, connected to a library-gallery to the west, with a separate carriage house also on the grounds — a layout built for Dana's large gatherings and, later, religious meetings.
the style
The house is executed in Wright's Prairie style, and is documented as an early Wright residential commission of typological significance in his development of that idiom.
the architect
Frank Lloyd Wright designed the house; it stands as an early Prairie-style residential commission in his career, built around 1902-1904 for client Susan Lawrence Dana.
More on Frank Lloyd Wrightsignificance
Designated a National Historic Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is now operated as a historic house museum by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, with the Dana-Thomas House Foundation helping preserve the building, host events, and raise funds.
more by Frank Lloyd Wright
nearby
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- Illinois Governor's Mansion
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