The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Cottage settled into its temporary home at Park 7n in Glencoe, IL on Tuesday, July 21st, before a welcoming committee of approximately 150 neighbors and friends. As neighbors, with leashed dogs and young children in tow, watched, Andrew Heck, owner of Wolfe Movers, of Indiana, manipulated three sets of roller dollies on which the Cottage had been placed.  The wheels kept the house steady as it moved off its 239 Franklin Street lot and rolled down Franklin Road, with workers removing brush and tree limbs as needed before the structure turned into the park. It will stand at its current location for close to a month while a crawl space foundation is dug immediately to the west.  Wolfe Movers will then return and slide the Cottage onto its new foundation where it will claim the address, 301 Maple Hill Road.

The house, a 1,100-sq. foot building designed in 1913 by Wright for the Booth family while their larger estate was being constructed, was under threat of demolition last year. The Glencoe Historical Society saved the building by taking possession of it, arranging for a new location and raising the funds to have it moved to the park site, which GHS is leasing on a long-term basis from the Glencoe Park District.

The Cottage is important both to the Wright legacy, and the legacy of American suburban living, as a precursor to the Usonian style house that Wright promulgated later in his career as affordable housing. This house offers insights into Wright’s thinking. The long front of the building features windows that show the beginnings of Wrightian-style art glass. The home is also important to the history of woman’s suffrage in Illinois, as Elizabeth Booth, as leader in the Illinois suffrage movement, lived in the Cottage with her children during the time of the Illinois suffrage victory.

The historical society undertook significant fundraising, with approximately $350,000 in contributions funding the building’s move and restoration.  When the house is fully restored, it will be used for a museum and research center for information about Wright’s efforts in Glencoe, which included Ravine Bluffs, a subdivision of Wright-designed homes he and Sherman Booth built and sold.  Glencoe, a suburb of Chicago along Lake Michigan’s North Shore, is home to the third largest collection of Wright-designed buildings and monuments in the world.

In 2015, GHS celebrated the centennial anniversary of Ravine Bluffs with a massive year-long Wright in Glencoe exhibition, housewalk and programming.  The was recognized by the American Association of State and Local History with their coveted Albert B. Corey Award.  It also received The Wright Spirit Award from the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy.   The historical society, an all-volunteer group continues to collect, preserve, and interpret Wright’s influence and architecture in Glencoe.

On Tuesday, July 21, beginning at 8 a.m., the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Cottage in Glencoe, Illinois will be moved from its current location to the Glencoe Park District’s Park 7n, saving it from demolition and preserving it to be used for historical research about the world renowned architect.

The Glencoe Historical Society (GHS), the new owner of the Cottage, is delighted that everything is in place for the long-awaited move, which is now subject only to weather conditions or further unanticipated COVID restrictions. Park 7n is located at the intersection of Meadow, Franklin, and Maple Hill roads along the railroad tracks in northeast Glencoe.

Spectators will be allowed to watch the move from areas along the route designated by Glencoe Public Safety. To protect everyone’s safety, spectators will not be allowed on the 239 Franklin Road property. All spectators will be expected to wear a mask and honor appropriate social distancing guidelines.

The Cottage, which will be placed on the southwest edge of the park. Once the building is in place, the exterior will be restored. The GHS also anticipates further restoration of the interior for use as a museum and research center.

The Cottage, on many endangered Wright-designed building lists, was constructed in 1913 for Wright’s attorney, Sherman Booth and his family as a temporary residence while Booth’s full-time home (also designed by Wright) was being constructed nearby. The Cottage is architecturally significant for what it can teach about Wright and his vision of the modern American home of the early 20th century. It is also important for its connection to Elizabeth Booth, one of the leaders of the Illinois’ suffragette movement, who was instrumental in helping Illinois women obtain the right to vote in 1913.

In preparation for the move, the Cottage has been stripped of additions made over the past 60 years and returned to its original design. The GHS negotiated a long term lease with the Glencoe Park District to allow the Cottage to be placed on the park which is situated directly south of Ravine Bluffs, which includes additional Wright-designed homes, a bridge and architectural markers that make Glencoe the third largest concentration of Wright-designed structures in the world.

As part of the relocation project, the GHS has also worked with the Village of Glencoe to remediate water drainage issues for the benefit of community. GHS Co-President Vanessa Zoerb emphasized the need to save the Cottage as the stimulus for the GHS action. The saving of this important transitional Wright design demonstrates to architectural and historical communities nationwide that Glencoe values the importance of the history of the built environment and is willing to “go the extra mile” to maintain that heritage.

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

A great deal has happened in the world since we last met in February.  We hope that you have remained safe and healthy during these challenging times.  Although the pandemic has imposed restrictions on all of us, we have continued to work with officials from the Village of Glencoe and the Park District as well as with our civil engineer, our contractor and the house movers on the relocation and restoration of the Wright-designed Cottage.  We would like to update you on the progress that has been made and report on the changes you will see coming to the park in the next few weeks.
As many of you know, our contractor worked in March and early April at the 239 Franklin Road site to prepare the Cottage for the move.  This work consisted primarily of removing the garage, the porte cochere and the back bedrooms to reduce the size of the Cottage to its original footprint.  Work was additionally done to shore up the interior to protect the structure during the move.
Over the past several months, we have also submitted documentation and permit applications to the Village for (1) the Cottage relocation; (2) the architectural restoration following the move; and (3) the civil engineering and drainage remediation work needed for the park.  Those plans have been thoroughly reviewed and discussed with both Village and Park District officials, and we anticipate that all three permits will be issued next week.  If you have specific questions about the approved plans, please contact the Village Engineer James Tigue at jtigue@villageofglencoe.org.
As a result, work will now commence on Park 7n itself.  During the week of June 29th, you will see workers begin to stake out the final location of the Cottage.  Enclosed with this letter for your reference is a site plan delineating the approved Cottage site and the required drainage improvements.  During this same week, you should expect to see the installation of construction fencing.  To minimize disruption to the area, all the workers on the project will park their vehicles south of the park on Old Green Bay Road.
Weather permitting, actual excavation and concrete work will begin the week of July 13th.  That concrete work will involve the pouring of the footings, foundation, and crawlspace for the relocated Cottage.  GHS will not be putting in a basement.  That same week, you will also see final preparations being made to the Cottage at the 239 Franklin Road site.
If the weather holds and there are no further emergency COVID-19 restrictions by state or local officials, the Cottage will be relocated during the week of July 20^th.  The actual move should take less than a day.  We will, of course, provide you with advance notice of the exact timing and will be working closely with the Village, the Park District and Public Safety to ensure that appropriate measures are in place to protect both the people and property in the area during this unique and exciting event.
On a final note, there have been some additional questions raised about whether GHS has the funding to complete this project.  GHS has addressed this topic on numerous occasions and will state, again, unequivocally that we have in hand the funds necessary to relocate and renovate the Cottage pursuant to the terms of the Lease.  Park District Executive Director Lisa Sheppard has confirmed that GHS has fully complied with the terms of the Lease and provided the Park District with proof of the required escrow to cover those costs.  That Escrow Account is being administered by former Village Manager Paul Harlow. A recent Glencoe News article about a Village Board meeting discussion may have been the source of these additional questions.  At that meeting, GHS sought to clarify the scope of in-kind work that the Village had agreed to provide so that GHS could properly allocate the existing funding to budgeted items.  The fact that GHS continues to discuss funding with the Village and others should not be misinterpreted as a lack of funding for the project.  As we move forward, you will see continued fundraising efforts by the GHS for our regular programs and for the Cottage.  Again, please do not misinterpret these efforts.  Fund raising is a normal part of the operation of all not-for-profits and organizations that administer even the largest endowments.  GHS is no different.  That does not mean that we lack the funds to complete this project.  Quite the contrary, it means that we are responsibly doing our job.
We look forward to continuing to work with all our community and construction partners to preserve this valuable architectural and historical asset as well as to remediate the recurring water issues which have afflicted the park.  If you have additional questions, please feel free to contact us at info@glencoehistory.org.  We will do our best to get back to you as quickly as possible but given the fact that our offices are currently closed due to the pandemic, we thank you, in advance, for your patience.  We hope that you remain safe and healthy in these difficult times.
Sincerely,
The Glencoe Historical Society

Soil and Material Consultants are at Park 7n today to perform two soil borings at the proposed north and south edges of the new location for the Wright-designed Cottage in Glencoe.  Soil borings are the method by which engineers explore the subsurface conditions at proposed construction sites.
Basically, they drill holes into the ground and force hollow tubes into the holes, capturing cylindrical samples of the soil at various depths.  The samples are then examined at a lab to determine the specific composition of the soils.  The results give the structural engineer a basis for designing the required foundation to support whatever building is being proposed on the site based on the bearing capacity of the specific soils.  The samples also, by their composition, reveal to the civil engineer how various strata within the subsurface will affect water flow, collection, and absorption in the immediate area of the structure.

Contractor Mike Reed of Reed Construction North Shore, Inc. today wrapped up preliminary structural work on the Wright-designed Cottage in Glencoe in preparation for moving the structure to Park 7n.  Over the past several weeks, Reed and his crew have carefully removed the subsequent additions to home and restored the structure to its original size and design.  They have also braced the interior of the home to protect the structure during its move down the block to the park.  The focus of the work now shifts to the park itself where civil engineering experts, who have been working on plans to remediate drainage issues, have requested soil boring samples to help fine tune the location of the Cottage in the park.  No date has been set for the move due to COVID 19 restrictions.

The Contractor has begun the final demolition work on the Cottage in preparation for the relocation of the home to Park 7n.  After severing the back bedroom additions on the Cottage last week, the bedroom additions were demolished today.  These additions, added by subsequent owners, were not part of the original design and there had been some concern that the framing of these bedrooms had damaged the cantilevered roof overhang and the original Cottage framing at the points of attachment.  The Contractor has worked carefully to detach the bedrooms and carefully examined the remaining structure.  He is confident that any damage can be repaired as part of the exterior restoration work.

As preparation work on the Wright-designed Cottage in Glencoe continues, the porte cochere over the front door was removed today. Though Wright often featured a porte cochere (sheltered/roofed arrival and departure point) at entries of his homes, the Cottage was not designed to have this feature originally.
In 1913, cars were still not readily used by the general public.  The Booths had built a Garage and Stable the prior year as the initial step in the construction of a magnificent estate that Wright had designed for them.   In its original ravine location, the Cottage did not have direct access for any type of vehicles and included only a modest and partially protected front entry platform for the Booths.  This platform will be replicated at the new site, restoring the Cottage to its historic front entry appearance.

The Wright-designed Cottage in Glencoe was constructed in 1913 and as originally designed did not include a garage.  Although cars were just beginning to become more readily available to the general public, they were not a staple in every home at that time.  There was no need for a garage in the original Cottage for two reasons:  first, it was intended to be only a temporary residence for the family while the main estate was completed; and second, Wright had designed a separate Garage and Stable for the estate home he planned for the Booth family.  The Garage and Stable had been completed the year before in 1912 and were available for the family’s use.
As part of the restoration process, the current garage that was added by subsequent owners was separated and today demolished in order to return the Cottage to its original size and design.