Historic, 'Aggressively Modern' Walter T. Fisher House Hits Market

WINNETKA, IL — The brick Walter T. Fisher house at 949 Fisher Ln. in Winnetka is a historically significant piece of American architecture. The Fishers, the original owners for whom the street is named after, selected the location as a midpoint between Lake Michigan and downtown Winnetka. Situated on a full-acre lot, the property was listed last week for just under $2 million.

According to the Winnetka Historical Society:

One of the North Shore’s most avant garde homes, the Walter T. Fisher house, is located on a quiet, wooded lane in Winnetka. Aggressively modern, it preceded the 1932 Museum of Modern Art exhibition that introduced European modernism (later known as the International Style) into mainstream American architecture. Featured in several architectural journals in the 1920s, the house received wide critical acclaim.

The Fisher house was designed in 1926 by Walter Fisher’s brother Howard, then an architecture student at Harvard. In the design for this house, which was his thesis, Howard could explore ideas that had been percolating in Europe during the teens and twenties and make them his own.

The Fisher House features amazing views of the surrounding woods, a dining porch on the first floor and a "sleeping porch" on the second floor. There were also two squash courts in the basement and shuffleboard on the room, according to the 1997 Winnetka Historical Society article discussing the property.

Howard Fisher designed a home whose only precedents were European International Style houses. He called his brother’s home a machine a habiter—machine for living—a term also used by International Style architect Le Corbusier to describe his designs. Although the Fisher house shows no great technological advances, its sharp lines, crisp corners, and flat surfaces give it the look of being machine tooled. Fisher saw the machine as a symbol of technology, progress, and modernity.

Walter Fisher, who was an attorney, president of Amalgamated Trust and Savings Bank, and a former chairman of the Illinois Commerce Commission, built his house on family land. Architect Howard constructed his own home on an adjacent piece of property, forming a family compound on the street that still bears the name Fisher Lane. The Walter T. Fisher house looks as wonderfully modern today as it did 50 years ago.

• Address: 949 Fisher Ln, Winnetka, Illinois
• Price: $1,950,000
• Square Feet: 5485
• Bedrooms: 7
• Bathrooms: 6 Full and 2 Half Baths
• Built: 1929
• Features: Enter into a gracious center foyer w/ an open light filled staircase. The living room, considered one of the finest modern rooms, is graciously proportioned w/ walls of inset bookcases. The interior offers a feeling of elegance & unexpected warmth. The master, w/ fireplace, has it's own glass sunroom. There are 7 serene second floor bedrooms. The open stair extends to the 3rd floor roof terraces. Each terrace serves its own purpose: covered for sun protection, screened perfect for sleeping and open with an outside brick fireplace for grilling. An elevator runs from basement to 3rd floor. Unaltered & in its original condition, this two-owner residence is ready for a new owner to carry this much published home into the future. Privately sited by town, train & Fisher Lane Beach.

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