Laowai

There’s this old and neglected house on our street in Wilmette. I was always peered at it as I went by trying to get a better look at it through it’s overgrown landscaping. It was interesting because it’s an old modern style home with an unusual shape and neat details like lots of copper and little scalloped window shades. Well the other day a crew came and removed every shrub and tree on it’s lot and then I discovered that it’s a house from the 1933 World’s Fair. It was an example of modern and progressive architecture, built by The Stran-Steel Company. It’s one of the “Houses of Tomorrow” at the Century of Progress exhibit at the fair. It was moved to Wilmette after the fair and it seems everyone forgot it’s significance.

There are a few articles when I search for Chicago World’s Fair house including this one and this one. Sounds like a builder bought it and is planning to put two new houses on the lot. They were hoping to find a buyer to move the house but I didn’t find that that happened. I don’t think it’s unheard of to move a historical house – I read about a Frank Lloyd Wright house that was moved a couple years ago (here’s the article).

Seeing the house in such bad shape is sad and it just makes me want to keep my house maintained and loved. If I had a million dollars it would be great to preserve that interesting old house.

Here it is today:

And here is an illustration from Good Houskeeping:

And here’s an old photo: