Frank Lloyd Wright House Hits Market After Decades Delay

A long-neglected Frank Lloyd Wright landmark on Chicago’s West Side is officially back on the market — offering preservationists what could be the best shot in decades at saving one of the architect’s most influential early works.

The Walser House, a two-story stucco home designed by Wright and built in 1903, is listed for $350,000 after government-sponsored mortgage giant Fannie Mae took title to the foreclosed property late last year, according to the New York Post. The house, at 42 North Central Avenue in the Austin neighborhood, has sat vacant and uninhabitable for roughly 20 years.

PHH Mortgage, the Florida-based holder of the mortgage, submitted the sole and winning bid — $240,000 — at a court-ordered auction. Fannie Mae received the property in December following the foreclosure sale and quietly put it on the market last week.

“It’s good news now that the building is out of the mess of the foreclosure process,” Barbara Gordon, executive director of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, told the Chicago Sun-Times. “Now, we’ve got a clear path to possible ownership for somebody to take this on.”

While the asking price might look modest, restoration costs are estimated at $2 million or more, and a recent appraisal pegged the property’s value at just $65,000 in its current condition. Any buyer would also face strict landmark requirements. The house is both a Chicago landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, meaning exterior and interior work must closely replicate Wright’s original design.

Built for printing executive Joseph Jacob Walser, the home fused elements — strong horizontal lines, deep eaves and bands of windows — that would later define Wright’s Prairie School style. Variations of the same ideas appear in better-known works like the Emil Bach House on the North Side, the Hills-DeCaro House in Oak Park and projects in Indiana and Buffalo, New York.

Local preservation groups, including Landmarks Illinois and Preservation Chicago, have been working since 2020 to stabilize the home. Austin Coming Together, a neighborhood nonprofit, has also been circling the property as part of broader investment in the area, including its $40 million redevelopment of a former CPS school across the street.

The group’s executive director, Darnell Shields, criticized the list price as “egregious” given the condition, but told the Sun-Times that he still plans to pursue a purchase and convert the house to community use.

— Eric Weilbacher