Name of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Racist Lawyer Stripped From Glencoe House
Jonah Meadows, Patch, October 1, 2024
The Glencoe Historical Society announced it has renamed a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed cottage after discovering that the original owner, Sherman Booth, played a central role in a scheme that used racially restrictive covenants and eminent domain to displace Black, Italian and Greek residents from the village nearly a century ago.
The result: the Black population of Glencoe went from about 10 percent in 1920 to 5 percent in 1930 to below 1 percent, where it remains today.
The cottage, previously known as the Booth Cottage, has now been officially named the Ravine Bluffs Cottage, according to the society. It was commissioned in 1913 as a temporary home for his family during the construction of a larger home.
The structure is recognized for its architectural significance as one of the early examples of Wright’s Prairie-style design, which later influenced his ‘Usonian’ style aimed at creating affordable housing.
In 2020, the Glencoe Historical Society, or GHS, arranged to save it from demolition by taking ownership of the cottage and relocating it to Ravine Bluffs Park. But new research conducted by the society has brought to light Booth’s leading role in an organized effort to restrict minority communities from owning property in Glencoe.
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A museum is planned for the cottage to help visitors “learn from this history so that it will never happen again,” according to GHS representatives.
