WRIGHTPLUS
2018 P R E V I E W
May 16, 2018
W E D N E S D A Y
JOURNAL F O R E S T PA R K
REVIEW
COURTESY OF FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT TRUST | PHOTO BY JAMES CAULFIELD
Herman G. Mallen House (George Washington Maher, 1905): A grand Prairie-style home with impressive poppy pattern art-glass windows and meticulous historical restorations.
Mallen House returns to walk and to original style George W. Maher-designed home extensively restored
By LACEY SIKORA
T
Contributing Reporter
his year’s Wright Plus housewalk will feature a home that was last on the walk in 1991. Since that time, architect George W. Maher’s Herman Mallen House has undergone quite a transformation. Brian DeVinck, Frank Lloyd Wright Trust research captain for the Mallen House, says that attendees this year can expect to see a
home that is being extensively restored by the current owners and says the home is an interesting reflection of Maher’s work. The home on Euclid Avenue in Oak Park was completed in 1905 for the family of Herman and Ellen Mallen, who lived in the house with their four daughters. Mallen founded a furniture manufacturing business with his father and later bought his father out and ran the firm himself. DeVinck says the company was known for manufacturing parlor furniture and made
furniture for almost every room in the house. Ellen Mallen outlived her husband and lived in the house until 1936. An original garage with living quarters for a chauffeur above lasted only 10 years, and today has been replaced with a singlefamily home across the alley from the current garage. Subsequent owners raised a monkey named Mike in the home’s solarium and reportedly donated the monkey to the Brookfield Zoo when they moved. In the 1950s the
owners modernized the house and installed one of the first private pools in Oak Park in the backyard. A 1982 fire damaged the home, and another fire later in the 1980s also did some damage to a small upstairs corner area of the house. The current owners purchased the home in 2000 and have undertaken extensive interior and exterior restoration efforts.
See MALLEN HOUSE on page B3