Willits House
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Ward W. Willits House
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Exterior View of Ward Willits House
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 Location in Chicago metropolitan area
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| Location | Highland Park, Illinois |
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| Coordinates | 42°10′44″N 87°47′13″W / 42.17882°N 87.78698°WCoordinates: 42°10′44″N 87°47′13″W / 42.17882°N 87.78698°W |
| Architect | Frank Lloyd Wright |
| Architectural style | Prairie school |
| NRHP Reference # | 80001380 |
| Added to NRHP | November 24, 1980 |
The Ward W. Willits House is a building designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Designed in 1901, the Willits house is considered the first of the great Prairie houses. Built in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park, Illinois, the house presents a symmetrical facade to the street. One of the more interesting points about the house is Wright's ability to seamlessly combine architecture with nature. The plan is a cruciate with four wings extending out from a central fireplace. In addition to stained-glass windows and wooden screens that divide rooms, Wright also designed most of the furniture in the house.
The Willits House is Wright's first true Prairie-style house; as such, it is the culmination of the period of experimentation that Wright engaged in the previous few years. This house was designed for Ward Winfield Willits in 1901, who was then vice-president of Adams and Westlake Company, a brass foundry of which he was later made president. Orlando Giannini, who was employed by Willits at the time, may have been responsible for the creation of this house as he introduced Wright to Willits. Wright was known for bridging the gap between architecture and nature, which makes this house fascinating because it is a full expression of Wright's interest in reconnecting with nature and Wright's equal interest in Japanese architecture and the Dutch art movement that was simultaneously occurring.
The Willits House is the first house in true Prairie style and marks the full development of Wright's wood frame and stucco system of construction. Although the Willits House has two stories, it is a more complex shape, consisting of a rectangular central space with a rectangular wing projecting from each side of that space. This is a standard design feature for most prairie-style houses, in addition to low roofs, elements that run parallel to the ground and extend out beyond the frame of the house. Wright used a cruciform plan with the interior space flowing around a central chimney core and extending outward onto covered verandas and open terraces. The plan of the house is a windmill style, as seen with the four wings extending from the fireplace in the central core and the movement from each wing being along a diagonal line. Wing two contains the great living room with high windows and a walled terrace. The dining room, extended by a large porch, comprises the third wing; the fourth, towards the rear of the house, contains the kitchen and servants' quarters. Wright incorporates diagonals into several other places in his design – the dining room has a prow-shaped end bay and another prow-shaped projection, the reception room has a similar prow-shaped bay, the art glass light over the entry stairway is rotated 45 degrees, again emphasizing the diagonal, and the terminating piers of the porte cochere are offset from the end wall by 45 degrees.
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