Mary M. W. Adams House
Date: 1905
Address: 1923 Lake Ave., Highland Park, Illinois
City: Highland Park, Illinois
Accessibility: Private
Category: Residential
A moderately sized Prairie style house, the Mary M. W. Adams house stands in Highland Park, Illinois. One of its most distinctive characteristics are the thin piers that protrude diagonally from the corners of the structure’s central mass. They frame its enclosed porch and exaggerate the lateral extension of the low, hipped roofs that surmount the house. As such, they serve an aesthetic function rather than a structural one. The piers also create reentrant angles that are sheltered by the deep eaves of the roof. These alcove-like areas occupy a liminal space along the periphery of the structure; they are simultaneously contained by and separate from the architecture that surrounds them. Just as the house’s interior and exterior stucco and dark wood trim surface treatment suggests a dynamic flow between interior and exterior space, the reentrant corners disallow a harsh delineation between inside and outside.