The Avery Coonley House, also known as the Coonley Estate, is a residential estate of several buildings built on the banks of the Des Plaines River in Riverside, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. Constructed in 1908–1912, it was designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. It is a National Historic Landmark and is included in another National Historic Landmark, the Riverside Historic District.

History

The Avery Coonley House (built 1908–12) in Riverside, Illinois, is located on a unique small peninsula surrounded by the Des Plaines River. Of the few estates that Frank Lloyd Wright developed, it is one of his largest and most elaborate Prairie School-homes ever built. It is one of just three multi-building prairie complexes built by the famed architect. The other two are the Dana–Thomas House and the Darwin D. Martin House complexes. The Coonley house is also the first example in Wright's work of a zoned plan. The raised second floor includes three zones: The public area (living room and dining room), the bedroom wing (with its pendant guest wing) and finally the kitchen and servants areas. The original residence was over-9000-square-feet and built on a ten-acre parcel. The entrance halls, playroom and sewing room are on the ground floor. An entire complex of interrelated buildings with extensive raised and sunken gardens was designed by landscape architect Jens Jensen. The main structure of the Avery Coonley Estate is the public-living room wing, located on Bloomingbank Road and behind that facing Scottswood Road is the bedroom wing of the mansion. The complex also includes a separate stable-coach house and gardener's cottage (1911). Along with the Robie House, the Coonley Estate represents the maturation of Wright's Prairie Style, typified by wide overhanging eaves, bands of art glass casement windows, free-flowing interior spaces and the harmonious blending of site and structure.

Avery Coonley, a Chicago industrialist and his wife, Queene Ferry of the Detroit-based Ferry Seed Company, were both heirs to industrial fortunes and had an unlimited budget to commission a new residence. The Coonleys had investigated Wright's other homes and told him that they saw in his work "the countenances of principle". Wright stated in his autobiography that "This was to me a great and sincere compliment. So I put my best into the Coonley House."

See also

  • List of Frank Lloyd Wright works
  • The Avery Coonley School
  • List of National Historic Landmarks in Illinois
  • National Register of Historic Places listings in Cook County, Illinois

References

  • (S.135)
  • A site about The Coonley House
  • A site about the Coonley Playhouse
  • Avery Coonley School