Another amazing Frank Lloyd Wright design. The Emil Bach House, a Prairie style home, is located on North Sheridan Road in the Rogers Park neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois. At the time it was nominated for the National Register of Historic Places, it was privately owned.
Emil Bach, a co-owner of the Bach Brick Company, was a fan of Wright’s work. The house was built for Bach in 1915. It’s now in an area of apartments and mixed houses. The house is two stories with a basement, and when it was initially built, there was a view through the back of the lot to Lake Michigan. Eventually, other buildings were erected and interrupted that view.
On September 28, 1977, the Bach House became a Chicago Landmark. On January 23, 1979, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).
Emil Bach
The site of the house was purchased by Emil Bach and his wife, Anna, on December 5, 1914. In the following year, Bach commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to design the house. In 1934, they sold the home to Joseph Peacock and he owned it until 1947. In 1951, the property changed hands two times with the second owner keeping the property until 1959 when he sold it to Joseph Blinder.
Bach immigrated to Chicago from Germany with his five brothers and parents in 1883. The father, William Bach, started a pottery that was named Bach & Sons, Inc. in 1895. Five years later, it became the Bach Brick Co., Inc. The company held the closed top kiln burning patent. It did so well that it was making 200,000 bricks in an eight-hour day.
In 1912, William Bach died and the six Bach brothers continued to operate the company with one of the brothers, Frederick, steering the company. After he died, Emil and his four brothers continued with the business.
Frank Lloyd Wright
Wright was born in 1867. Later, he attended the University of Wisconsin but left in 1887. When he left, he came to Chicago and studied with a member of the Chicago School of Architecture named Louis Sullivan. Wright started his own practice in 1893 in Oak Park, Illinois.
Inspired by the teachings of Wright’s mentor, Louis Sullivan, the architects of the Prairie School sought to create a new, democratic architecture, free from the shackles of European styles, and suited to a modern American way of living. (Source.)
Wright became famous as a leader of the Prairie School of Architecture. If you’re ever in the Oak Park, Illinois area, you might consider touring Wright’s first home and studio. Visit here to learn more about this home.
The house
The house was on the market for a while and in 2005, was put up for auction and had a starting bid of $750,000. Due to its easement and landmark status, a new owner would be prohibited from demolishing the house.
At the time the house was up for auction, there was some concern about the 45 ft x 150 ft. side yard being used as part of some high-rise development since it was zoned for townhomes or condos.
The home did sell at auction for $1.17 million with the new owner intending to preserve the yard. It was extensively restored and opened to the public in 2014, and for a price, it can be a vacation home or an event space. The interior is stunning, which you can see for yourself.
Wright designed the home after a trip to Europe. The Bach House is the only house of cubic masses and slab roof still standing in Chicago. As the neighborhood changed with more commercial properties going up, the house was no longer seen as the country home it once was with the view of Lake Michigan.
The home has historic and cultural value and has earned its role as a landmark in Chicago. Supposedly, the reason the house hasn’t been demolished might be due to the historic preservation easement. It “forbids whoever owns the home to demolish or even to change it without permission of the Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois.” (Source.)
Visit here to read Architectural Digest’s 2019 piece, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Emil Bach House Plays Host to an Experiential Performance which includes some photos.
Thanks for reading. There’s always a story in a story.
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