Frank Lloyd Wright's First Boss Built This Highland Park Gem

HIGHLAND PARK, IL — An architecturally significant Highland Park home hit the market Tuesday listed for $1.575 million. The three-story brick and stucco design was designed by Joseph Silsbee, a prolific architect and the first employer of Frank Lloyd.

Located on a nearly 1-acre lot on Ravine Drive about a five-minute walk from Lake Michigan or the Highland Park Metra station, the "Samuel Slade House" now features six bedrooms in more than 6,000 square feet on a nearly 1-acre lot. The home has an expansive backyard extending into a ravine behind.

Silsbee moved to Chicago in 1886 from upstate New York, where he had begun working as an architect after becoming a member of the first-ever class of architectural students at the Massachutsets Institute of Design. Silsbee and his architects across three practices in Buffalo, Syracuse and Chicago between 1884 and 1887 designed at least 75 buildings, mostly homes — although two of his Victorian Gothic landmarks remain in downtown Syracuse — with seven listed on the National Register of Historic Places. More than 350 of his designs were known to have been built before his death in 1913, according to biography Buffalo architecture website.

But Silsbee is likely best remembered as the first boss of Frank Lloyd Wright, who went to work for him in 1887.

"His superior talent in design had made him respected in Chicago. His work was a picturesque combination of gable turret and hip with broad porches quietly domestic and gracefully picturesque," Wright recalled in his autobiography. "A contrast to the awkward stupidities and brutalities of the period elsewhere."

At the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Silsbee developed the award-winning "Moving Sidewalk" — the predecessor of modern moving walkways and escalators — and the West Virginia and North Dakota buildings, according to a biography from the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust. He also designed the Lincoln Park Conservatory, which was completed in 1895, according to the Cultural Landscape Foundation.

In 1909, near the end of his architectural career, Silsbee designed the Ravine Drive house for Samuel Slade, according to a Highland Park Historical Society plaque installed by the home's previous owner. The initial construction of the home led to a legal dispute over several hundred dollars and an arbitration clause that was decided in 1915 at the Illinois Appeals Court in Slade's favor. In 1919, Mrs. Slade chaired the finance committee for the National American Suffrage Association's national convention in February 1920, which took place as states ratified

According to homeowner Katie Schmanski, who purchased the property for $1.285 million in 2015 with her husband, Matt, the interior has been updated with the addition of a sitting room above the foyer atop an original staircase.

"I wanted to be as close to the lake as we could, but I also wanted as much of a yard as we could," Schmanski said. The family was initially drawn to Highland Park because of the available space and the character of its homes, she said. "There's nothing really cookie-cutter about the neighborhoods and the houses up here."

The previous owner, Hochstadter, is an oral surgeon and the recipient the best overall garden award from the Chicago Tribune's 2009 Glorious Garden awards for the perennial landscape around the Arts and Crafts English Tudor-style house.

After Hochstadter upgraded the kitchen with high-end appliances, the Schmanskis expanded the back porch, which leads to an expansive backyard with gardens, a firepit, a fountain and a small koi pond. In recent years, the sellers also added hardwood flooring to the second floor and upgraded the master bathroom and powder room.

The house also includes three original wood-burning fireplaces and an attached garage with room for three cars.

Crain's Chicago Business first reported the listing, noting that economist Edwin Kuh, a pioneer in the field of econometric studies, grew up in the home, which was owned by his parents, Edwin and Charlotte, from 1925 to 1974.

The home may not last on the market long. Realtor Matt Silver said three showings had already been scheduled within a day of the home's appearance on the multiple listing service.

According to the Lake County Assessor's Office, the fair market value of the property in 2017 was about $1.33 million and annual property taxes on the home were nearly $33,000.

• Address: 154 Ravine Drive, Highland Park
• Built: 1909
• Lot Size: 0.96 acre
• Square Feet: 6,012
• Bedrooms: 6
• Bathrooms: 4 full, 1 half
• Listed: Feb. 12 for $1.575 million
• Last Sold: September 2015 for $1.285 million

This listing originally appeared on realtor.com. For more information and photos, click here.