River Forest Golf Club
Date: 1898
City: River Forest, Illinois
Category: Recreational
Restoration Status: Demolished
Wright designed several recreational clubs in his early career. His first, the River Forest Golf Club, was initially conceived of as a simple T-shaped structure with a porch, assembly hall, and club room on its central access, and dressing rooms with pavilions projecting from its transept. Wright expanded and reconfigured the Club in 1901, replacing the semicircular club room found on the original plan with a larger octagonal lounge, and adding a kitchen and service area as side wings. With its low, overhanging hipped roofs; masonry chimney; horizontal board-and-batten siding; and clerestory windows, the Club shares much in common with Wright’s contemporary designs for residential commissions.