Styles - Prairie

This architectural style was very popular in the Midwest from about 1900 to 1930. Frank Lloyd Wright was the master and leader of the movement that sought to stress the beauty of Midwestern prairie in which the majority of the houses were built. Although the prairie style can be found in commercial buildings, it was primarily used in domestic architecture. The typical Prairie houses are of two stories, some of three. The have one-story wings or porches that reach out in more than one direction and are integrated with its site to provide a horizontal appearance.

In the exterior, walls are generally of light-colored brick, stucco or concrete block, and wood. It is important to note that Prairie houses do not have curves, walls are always arranged at right angles. Although Wright usually denied it, there is an influence of traditional Japanese architecture in the houses, noticeable in those dark wooden strips against a light stucco background. Roofs are flat or shallow-pitched with broad overhangs, casement windows grouped into horizontal bands that emphasize the length of the house, and decorative banding along the exterior walls.

Windows have small diamond-shaped or rectangular panes of glass set in grooved lead strips called cames, often with a single, geometric pattern. The interiors are also innovative. Walls tend to be plain except when emphasized by wooden strips, as on the exterior. Wooden trim in single geometric shapes was used for stairways, built-in cabinets and the furniture that some of the architects designed to complement their houses. The Prairie style exercised its greatest influence in the Chicago area, where many houses on this style were built in Oak Park and other suburban areas. Examples can also be found throughout Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin, as far east as Rochester, N.Y., and even on the West Coast.

Harris, Cyril M. Harris. American Architecture: an Illustrated Encyclopedia. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1998.
Poppeliers, John C. What style is it? Washington, D.C. : Preservation Press, Historic American Buildings Survey/National Trust for Historic Preservation, 1983.
Whiffen, Marcus. American Architecture Since 1780: A Guide to the Styles. Cambridge, MA: The M.I.T. Press, 1969.