Wright on the Move

(c) Mark Hertzberg 2020

It was moving day in suburban Glencoe, Illinois for Frank Lloyd Wright’s diminutive Sherman Booth Cottage (1913) on Tuesday July 20. The cottage, built for Sherman Booth, Wright’s attorney, while his larger Wright home was under construction, was threatened with demolition by new owners of its lot. The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy and the Glencoe Historical Society worked together for the Society to acquire the home and move it about a tenth of a mile to a park, where they hope to remodel it and turn it into a museum.

Former Conservancy board president and present board member Tim Quigley walks his dog past the site before the move. He came from Minneapolis to see the action.

Clearances are checked as the house is moved off its lot.

Lumber protects the windows on the front of the house.

Many limbs had to be trimmed as the house moved down the street.

The move was a spectator’s delight.

It was also a journalist’s delight.

The house moves past the Ravine Bluffs marker.

Wright luminaries included Ron Scherubel, former Executive Director of the Building Conservancy, and Barbara Gordon, current Executive Director, and Wright restoration architect John Eifler.

Quigley, left, chats with  Eifler.

Below, views of the foundation of the house:

This is the foundation of the Frank Lloyd Wright – designed Sherman Booth Cottage (1913) which was moved to its new home in a park about one tenth of a mile away in suburban Glencoe, Illinois Tuesday July 21, 2020. The cottage was threatened with demolition by the new owners of the lot it has stood on since 1916. With the help of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, the nonprofit Glencoe Historical Society acquired the home and hopes to remodel it and turn it into a museum and research center. The diminutive home, built for Wright’s attorney Sherman Booth while his larger Wright home was being built nearby, is said by some Wright aficionados to be a precursor to his post-1936 Usonian home designs. There are five other Wright homes in the nearby Ravine Bluffs neighborhood.

This is the foundation of the Frank Lloyd Wright – designed Sherman Booth Cottage (1913) which was moved to its new home in a park about one tenth of a mile away in suburban Glencoe, Illinois Tuesday July 21, 2020. The cottage was threatened with demolition by the new owners of the lot it has stood on since 1916. With the help of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, the nonprofit Glencoe Historical Society acquired the home and hopes to remodel it and turn it into a museum and research center. The diminutive home, built for Wright’s attorney Sherman Booth while his larger Wright home was being built nearby, is said by some Wright aficionados to be a precursor to his post-1936 Usonian home designs. There are five other Wright homes in the nearby Ravine Bluffs neighborhood.

This is the foundation of the Frank Lloyd Wright – designed Sherman Booth Cottage (1913) which was moved to its new home in a park about one tenth of a mile away in suburban Glencoe, Illinois Tuesday July 21, 2020. The cottage was threatened with demolition by the new owners of the lot it has stood on since 1916. With the help of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, the nonprofit Glencoe Historical Society acquired the home and hopes to remodel it and turn it into a museum and research center. The diminutive home, built for Wright’s attorney Sherman Booth while his larger Wright home was being built nearby, is said by some Wright aficionados to be a precursor to his post-1936 Usonian home designs. There are five other Wright homes in the nearby Ravine Bluffs neighborhood.

This is the foundation of the Frank Lloyd Wright – designed Sherman Booth Cottage (1913) which was moved to its new home in a park about one tenth of a mile away in suburban Glencoe, Illinois Tuesday July 21, 2020. The cottage was threatened with demolition by the new owners of the lot it has stood on since 1916. With the help of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, the nonprofit Glencoe Historical Society acquired the home and hopes to remodel it and turn it into a museum and research center. The diminutive home, built for Wright’s attorney Sherman Booth while his larger Wright home was being built nearby, is said by some Wright aficionados to be a precursor to his post-1936 Usonian home designs. There are five other Wright homes in the nearby Ravine Bluffs neighborhood.

This is the foundation of the Frank Lloyd Wright – designed Sherman Booth Cottage (1913) which was moved to its new home in a park about one tenth of a mile away in suburban Glencoe, Illinois Tuesday July 21, 2020. The cottage was threatened with demolition by the new owners of the lot it has stood on since 1916. With the help of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, the nonprofit Glencoe Historical Society acquired the home and hopes to remodel it and turn it into a museum and research center. The diminutive home, built for Wright’s attorney Sherman Booth while his larger Wright home was being built nearby, is said by some Wright aficionados to be a precursor to his post-1936 Usonian home designs. There are five other Wright homes in the nearby Ravine Bluffs neighborhood.