Inside look: Oak Park's historic Frank Lloyd Wright home listed on the market

OAK PARK, Ill. - For the first time ever, an historic Frank Lloyd Wright home in Oak Park is up for sale.

Built just a few years after Wright started his own practice, the George Smith House on Home Avenue in Oak Park was built for the Marshall Fields' salesman with whom Wright went to church.

"It's an early Wright. It's done in his shingle style which he was starting off doing in his early career," said Barbara Gordon, Executive Director of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy. "It has these very traditional forms that you might see in the tradition of the Victorian style, but his ideas of geometry are really starting to come through in his designs."

Like the unique double-angled rooflines, and original diamond-paned windows, found throughout.

"The fact that this family owned it for over 60 years and did very little to make any interior changes to the layout, I think it is really important," said Gordon.

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The three-story interior needs extensive restoration, but the original details are all there. The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy is offering inspiration on its website through renderings of what it likely used to look like, so potential buyers can envision the possibilities stacked up against its current condition.

"You are getting a home that has so much potential," said Gordon. "You can bring out its original features but yet, make it your own."

For the right buyer, it's an architectural treasure chest just waiting to be unlocked.

"I think it would be phenomenal," said listing agent Catherine Cannon. "It would be a showstopper and it would be something that would be like: 'stop and stare!'"

Because it's a prime example of Wright's early work, the exterior of the home is protected from demo.

The property just hit the market in mid-December and is listed for $595,000.