An Oak Park Afternoon

Photo (left) Library, Pleasant Home. Photographer: Darris Lee Harris.
Photo (right) Courtesy of Cheney Mansion and the Park District of Oak Park.

Spend a leisurely afternoon on a self-guided walk in historic Oak Park, visiting three of its stately and historic sites. Informal tours by docents and light refreshments are included at each site. Visit the sites in any order.

Your ticket includes a map to all sites plus suggestions for exterior viewing of other sites along the route, including some by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Note: Transportation is not provided. The distance between the two farthest points is approximately one mile. Street parking and bicycle rental are available.

Pleasant Home (George W. Maher, 1897)

Photographer: Darris Lee Harris.

Pleasant Home was designed in 1897 by noted architect George W. Maher for investment banker and philanthropist John W. Farson and his wife Mamie Ashworth Farson. The design of Pleasant Home broke with the traditional Queen Anne and Colonial Revival styles of most of the homes in Oak Park.

The simplified massing of Farson’s house, its broad front porch, the smooth surfaces of Roman brick and stone, and the use of decorative motifs to unify the interior decoration and furnishings mark it as an outstanding Prairie School house.

This 30-room architectural gem is a showcase of 19th century craftsmanship and artistry, with rich custom woodwork throughout the home, extraordinary art-glass windows, a massive fireplace, intricate woodcarvings and tile work, and the glowing warmth of light from another era.

On the second floor of the home, visit the Historical Society of Oak Park and River Forest, where you can learn about the origins of these unique villages and the many famous – and infamous – citizens who called them home.

Elizabeth F. Cheney Mansion and Gardens (Charles E. White, Jr., 1913)

Courtesy of Cheney Mansion and the Park District of Oak Park.

Cheney Mansion, reminiscent of a gracious English country home, was designed in 1913 by Charles E. White, Jr., a graduate of MIT. For two years, beginning in 1903, White worked in Frank Lloyd Wright’s studio, and was strongly influenced by Wright’s credo that a building should express the spirit of its natural surroundings.

This 12,000-square-foot mansion boasts many handsome reception rooms, six bedrooms, seven bathrooms, and separate servants' quarters. A coach house and greenhouse also stand on the two acres of beautifully landscaped grounds. These showcase gardens include elegant flower beds, a kitchen and cutting garden with an espalier fence, a woodland walk, and the great lawn for picnics. Many of the garden's plantings are grown from seed in the greenhouse. The Cheney Mansion’s gardeners will be present to answer questions.

A 1970 Survey of Historic Buildings in Oak Park describes Cheney Mansion as a "simplified rectilinear design of first rank in architectural quality, significance, and originality."

Ernest Hemingway Birthplace Home

Hemingway's Birthplace is an excellent place to begin to explore the roots of this noted American author's life and art. Here the famed author was born in a second floor bedroom on July 21, 1899. This Queen Anne house, built by his maternal grandparents and recently restored, is as it was when Ernest Hemingway lived there. Young Ernest spent his first six years in these grand rooms rich with Victorian decor.

Hemingway's first twenty years in this area prepared him for his life as a writer. His father taught him in the woods nearby how to live the outdoor life and to observe nature closely. His mother took him to opera houses and museums in Chicago so he could appreciate the inner life the arts awakened. His family initiated him in the spiritual life of their church, where he sang in the choir. Hemingway is one of the more famous alumni of Oak Park River Forest High School – his only claim to a formal education.

In 1906, the family moved to a home at 600 North Kenilworth designed by architect Henry G. Fiddelke.

For more information contact . Program subject to change due to unavoidable circumstances.