The Mary Greenlees Yerkes House (also known as the "Mrs. Charles Yerkes House"), is a 1912

prairie style Prairie School is a late 19th- and early 20th-century architectural style, most common in the Midwestern United States. The style is usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hip roof, hipped roofs with broad Overhang (architecture), ove ...

house in

Oak Park, Illinois Oak Park is a village in Cook County, Illinois, adjacent to Chicago. It is the 29th-most populous municipality in Illinois with a population of 54,583 as of the 2020 U.S. Census estimate. Oak Park was first settled in 1835 and later incorporated in ...

by American architect

John S. Van Bergen John Shellette Van Bergen (October 2, 1885 – December 20, 1969) was an American architect born in Oak Park, Illinois. Van Bergen started his architectural career as an apprentice draftsman in 1907. In 1909 he went to work for Frank Lloyd Wrigh ...

for Mary Greenlees Yerkes, the widow of Charles Sherman Yerkes and mother of somewhat noted

impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

artist

Mary Agnes Yerkes Mary Agnes Yerkes, ( ; August 9, 1886 – November 8, 1989), was an American Impressionist painter, photographer and artisan. She was skilled in the media of oil, pastel and watercolor. Her professional career was cut short by the Great Depres ...

. The home was featured in a book by Patrick Cannon, titled Prairie Metropolis.

Architecture

Recipient of a 2002 Oak Park Historic Preservation Award, the house is clad in cedar clapboards that go up to the second-floor windows and has a distinctive artist's studio that sticks out over the alleyway. The house features large overhanging eaves and a low hipped roof. The house is based on a variation of Wright's "Fireproof House for $5000" Plan, featuring square-centric massing with a central fireplace.

Notable residents

Mary Agnes Yerkes, Mary Agnes in her studio

Tax records show the Yerkes' living in the house until 1919. The house was later briefly resided in by

Jim Ameche Jim Ameche (August 6, 1915 – February 4, 1983)Cox, Jim (2008). ''This Day in Network Radio: A Daily Calendar of Births, Debuts, Cancellations and Other Events in Broadcasting History''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . Page 29. was an American r ...

, brother of

Don Ameche Don Ameche (; born Dominic Felix Amici; May 31, 1908 – December 6, 1993) was an American actor, comedian and vaudevillian. After playing in college shows, stock, and vaudeville, he became a major radio star in the early 1930s, which l ...

, and radio star. The house was bought in 1992, and restored by architect John Garrett Thorpe, who sold the house in 2010.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yerkes Residence, Mary Greenlees Houses completed in 1912 Houses in Cook County, Illinois Oak Park, Illinois Prairie School architecture in Illinois