View source for Coonley House

{{short description|House in Riverside, Illinois}}
{{Use American English|date=July 2025}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2023}}
{{Infobox NRHP
| name                  = Avery Coonley House
| nrhp_type             = nhl
| image                 = Avery Coonley House, 300 Scottswood Road, 281 Bloomingbank Road, Riverside (Cook County, Illinois).jpg
| caption               =
| location              = 300 Scottswood Road and 281 Bloomingbank Road, [[Riverside, Illinois]]
| coordinates           = {{coord|41|49|13.98|N|87|49|43.03|W|display=inline,title}}
| locmapin              = Illinois#USA
| area                  =
| built                 = {{start date|1908}}
| architect             = [[Frank Lloyd Wright]]
| architecture          = [[Prairie School]]
| designated_nrhp_type  = December 30, 1970<ref name="nhlsum"/>
| added                 = December 30, 1970<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|2007a}}</ref>
| refnum                = 70000243
| nrhp_type2            = nhldcp
| designated_nrhp_type2 = August 29, 1970
| partof                = [[Riverside Historic District (Riverside, Illinois)|Riverside Historic District]]
| partof_refnum         = 69000055
}}
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 (Riverside, Illinois)|Riverside Historic District]].

==History==
{{Original research|section|date=May 2015}}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 (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-Morse Seed Company|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".<ref name="Collected Writings2">''Frank Lloyd Wright: Collected Writings, 1930-32, volume 2.'' Edited by Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, introduction by Kenneth Frampton (Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., New York City, 1992), p. 218.</ref> Wright stated in his autobiography that "This was to me a great and sincere compliment. So I put my best into the Coonley House."<ref name="Collected Writings2" /> Wright considered the Coonley House among his finest works and gave the Coonleys a residence that blended indoors and out and felt as much like a little village as a home, given the way the courtyards, buildings, and garden walls interconnected. He designed all the features and furnishings within the home, including rugs and textiles. The designs of the Coonley House were included in his 1907 exhibition at the Chicago Architectural Club. Construction began a year later.

A philanthropic couple, The Coonleys had progressive beliefs which included early education for children. At the age of four years, their only daughter Elizabeth was too young to attend the local school. To educate her child and others, Queene Ferry requested that Wright design a kindergarten, the [[Avery Coonley School Playhouse]], in 1912 on nearby Fairbank Road, a block away from the main residence. The art glass windows of the Coonley Playhouse feature one of Frank Lloyd Wright's best known designs. A pattern based on balloons, confetti and American flags, very festive for the intended use of the structure, the design used in these windows was artistically striking and represents Wright's first departure from his signature style using only straight lines. Except for a few relatively plain panes, the windows of the Coonley Playhouse are now all replicas, the originals having been removed in the middle of the 20th century at a time when Wright's work was either being saved or dissected and sold for large sums of money.  Many of the originals can be seen in museums such as the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] in New York and The [[Art Institute of Chicago]] which prominently displays one of the windows near its main entrance. The colored side of the art glass windows faced the inside of the house, while the side that faces exterior is white. The kindergarten school moved from the Coonley Playhouse in Riverside to a larger facility in Downers Grove in 1916 and eventually became a full K-8 elementary school and still exists today. The original Coonley Playhouse near the estate in Riverside is currently a private residence.

Alterations to the Coonley Estate have been made through the years, by Wright and others. A year after the house was completed, Wright modified the terrace pavilion, adding bands of art glass doors and windows to allow more light into the second-floor living room and children's playroom below. A pergola with noticeable Asian influences was also added. Avery Coonley sold the house in 1921 to Peter Kroehler, a furniture manufacturer from Naperville, Illinois. Several architectural changes were made during this period including a sun-room addition to the south, the lily pond was converted into a swimming pool and a pool house was added - probably designed by Harry Robinson, an apprentice under Wright at both Oak Park and [[Taliesin]]. 
In 1952 the property was threatened with demolition to make way for 14 ranch homes. A compromise was reached that allowed developer Arnold Skow to divide the main house into north and south halves by inserting a firewall, build five new houses on the property and convert the gardener's cottage and stable into separate residences and addresses. The raised gardens were sold off and a modern house was built on the property. Even with these radical changes, the house retains nearly all of its original exterior and interior design details, including approximately 270 original art glass windows and doors.

A heater for the swimming pool exploded on June 11, 1978, setting a fire that destroyed the living room of the main house and one of the bedrooms. In 2000 salvage and restoration work was performed on light screens and [[Millwork (building material)|millwork]] on the north half of the house including stucco and roof repair, restoration of the original gravel driveway and the reconversion of the swimming pool back to the original lily pond.  The entire north side of the house has been meticulously restored to its original splendor including the re-creation of the [[George Mann Niedecken]] living room mural as well as the decorative tulip designed tile frieze along with many light screens that surround the perimeter of the house.

The Avery Coonley House is the largest privately owned Frank Lloyd Wright residence to be recognized by the [[United States Secretary of the Interior]]. It was declared a [[National Historic Landmark]] in 1970.<ref name="nhlsum">{{cite web |url=http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=921&ResourceType=Building |title=Avery Coonley House |access-date=2007-10-03 |work=National Historic Landmark summary listing |publisher=[[National Park Service]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080103060607/http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=921&ResourceType=Building |archive-date=2008-01-03 }}</ref><ref name="nrhpinv2">{{Cite journal |url={{NHLS url|id=70000243}} |title=National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Avery Coonley House |date=March 5, 1970 |format=PDF |author=Charles W. Snell |publisher=[[National Park Service]] |access-date=2009-06-27 }}. {{NHLS url|id=70000243|title=Accompanying 7 photos, exterior, from 1970 and undated.|photos=y}}&nbsp;{{small|(3.31&nbsp;MB)}}</ref>

==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==
{{reflist}}
* {{Cite Wright Companion}} (S.135)

==External links==
{{Commons category|Coonley House}}
* [https://www.facebook.com/coonleyhousebedroomwing Facebook: Coonley House Bedroom Wing]
* [http://www.appraisercitywide.com/content.aspx?filename=CustomPage70.x A site about The Coonley House]
* [http://www.appraisercitywide.com/content.aspx?FileName=CustomPage69.x A site about the Coonley Playhouse]
* [http://www.averycoonley.org Avery Coonley School, located in Downers Grove, IL founded by the Coonleys]

{{National Register of Historic Places}}
{{Frank Lloyd Wright}}

[[Category:Frank Lloyd Wright buildings]]
[[Category:Houses completed in 1912]]
[[Category:Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Cook County, Illinois]]
[[Category:National Historic Landmarks in Illinois]]
[[Category:Riverside, Illinois]]
[[Category:1912 establishments in Illinois]]
[[Category:Historic district contributing properties in Illinois]]