Beverly Hills-Morgan Park Home Tour Features Two Rare Frank Lloyd Wright Houses

CHICAGO, IL -- If you’ve always wanted to see what was behind the doors of some of the South Side’s most unique and awe-inspiring houses, the Beverly Hills/Morgan Park Home Tour returns on Sunday, May 21. This year’s tour showcases five historic homes, including two rare, Frank Lloyd Wrights and a tiny house built by students from the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences. Tickets to the 46th edition of the Beverly Area Planning Association’s event are $30 in advance or $35 on the day of the tour, available for ordering online at BAPA.org.

2 Rare Wrights

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s birth, as well as the 100th anniversary of the construction of Wright’s Guy C. Smith House in Beverly/Morgan Park. The Guy C. Smith House and the Jesse & William Adams House, both Chicago Landmarks, will be open for the Home Tour. They are rare and distinctive examples of Wright’s work.

The Guy C. Smith house is one of two neighborhood American System Built homes designed by Wright with the goal of offering livable and beautiful prefabricated housing at a moderate price. Only a few of the homes were built before the United States entered World War I and construction was halted. The current owners have spent more than 25 years carefully restoring the house. It was last on BAPA’s Home Tour a decade ago, and since that time has undergone a complete renovation of its spacious yard that includes the installation of a Wright-inspired pond and all new landscaping.

Built in 1901, the Jesse and William Adams house was designed during an important period of transition for Frank Lloyd Wright as he was developing his Prairie Style. The home’s owner, William Adams, a contractor and builder who worked with prominent architects on residential and commercial buildings, commissioned Wright to design it. Prairie Style elements in the Adams house can be seen in the horizontal design and the way the porch connects the home’s interior and exterior. The Adams house was last on BAPA’s Home Tour in 1996.

Also Featured on the Tour

The Home Tour starts at Ridge Park, 9625 S. Longwood Dr., Chicago, and all tours must begin by 3 p.m. Tour sites close promptly at 5 p.m.

The Ridge Park Field House is the first stop on the tour, and people are invited to visit meeting rooms and spaces not usually open the public, the ceramics studio, and the John H. Vanderpoel Art Association art gallery which, during the Home Tour, will be hosting the opening of an exhibit by Steve Gerhartz, a plein air artist from Two Rivers, Wis.

The Tour will also open the doors to an exceptional Prairie Style house designed by Robert Skilleter Smith that has been renovated from top to bottom for a contemporary family lifestyle; an elegant English style home designed by Homer G. Sailor and built in 1930 for a prominent Chicago financier; a historied Colonial Revival Foursquare built circa 1900 on a wooded hilltop lot; and the tiny house built for display at Chicago’s Home and Garden Show by students at the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences.

Paint Showcases sponsored by Calumet Paint & Wallpaper, Benjamin Moore Paints, and RMH Interiors will be on display in the tiny house as well as one of the private residences.

Experience Neighborhood Hospitality

The experience of visiting Beverly Hills/Morgan Park wouldn’t be complete without some extra hospitality. Home Tour visitors are invited to enjoy a cooking demonstration and sampling by Chef Alvin Green, a beverage tasting by Wild Blossom Meadery, a painting demonstration by artist Judie Anderson, a vintage golf experience courtesy of Klees Golf Shop, and a chance to talk to experts from the Frank Lloyd Wright Conservancy.

Home Tour Sponsors

The Beverly/Morgan Park Home Tour is sponsored by Mike Haggerty Buick GMC Volkswagen, Beverly Bank, Marquette Bank, The Private Bank, Road Home Program, Beverly Hills Animal Hospital, AT&T, 19th Ward Youth Foundation, County Fair Foods, Pendo Advisors, PLS, PRS Professional Real Estate Services, Pacor Mortgage Corp., Commissioner Bridget Gainer, Smith Village, Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Biros Real Estate, Steuber Florist & Greenhouses, Coldwell Banker, Ryan & Joyce Developers, Solution 3 Graphics, The Beverly Review, RMH Interiors + Design.

Buy Your Tickets Today

Tickets for the Beverly/Morgan Park Home Tour are $30 in advance and $35 at the door, and available online at www.bapa.org or at the BAPA office, 1987 W. 111th St., Mon. through Thurs., 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. For information on the event, volunteering or becoming a sponsor, contact bapa@bapa.org.