One of Frank Lloyd Wright’s early Chicago-area residences surfaced on the open market in the final days of 2020. The Isidore H. Heller House, an 1898-built Prairie-style that is a registered National Landmark, is located north of Hyde Park, and priced at $2.2 million.

The home’s more florid decorative sensibilities prefigure the marvelous formality of later Wright designs, and the interiors frequently surprise by way of ornate, fin-de-siecle details; FLW also used strident line as a decorative element, which is interesting to see on a house of this vintage. Classic Wright design elements include the materials used, and the stacked massing of Prairie architecture is strongly—even muscularly—represented.

Highlights of the home include the fireplace, and the wall behind it; both are extended, and suggest the wide-open spaces of the American landscapes that inspired the style. The kitchen’s a beaut, with Shaker cabinetry, a butler’s door, and multiple pantries; a large space for food preparation, as this home is also considerably larger than many of the Chicago-area FLW homes that were to come, with interiors measuring 6,100 sq. ft. and seven bedrooms throughout.