Glessner House Museum

Glessner House is recognized internationally as the urban residential masterpiece of architect Henry Hobson Richardson.  Completed in 1887 on Chicago’s exclusive Prairie Avenue for clients John and Frances Glessner, the design of the house was a radical departure for the time, and influenced architects who followed, including Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright.  It is designated as a Chicago landmark and as a National Historic Landmark. 

The house was rescued from the threat of demolition in 1966 when a group of architects and preservationists organized specifically to purchase the building.  Since that time, several million dollars have been invested to restore the house to the period of the Glessner occupancy, and descendants have returned the majority of original furnishings, as well as an immense archive documenting the family, their home, and Chicago in the late 19^th- and early 20^th-centuries.