Greene & Greene Virtual Archives
Mrs. Ruben H. Donnelly Farmhouse
Lake Forest, Illinois, 1915
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Mrs. Ruben H. Donnelly House
Lake Forest, Illinois
1915

Henry Greene designed for Mrs. Donnelly this small residence that was never built. The layout of this building and several of its features suggest that this farmhouse was intended as housing for the ranch hands, not the family. There are no private bedrooms, only two sleeping porches on the second floor. Each had the capacity to hold five single beds. There were two shared bathrooms for the tenants. The first floor was dominated by an enormous (40 x 23 feet) living room that opened directly to the front door. The drawings indicates its floor was to be made of ruled cement. There was a large kitchen, pantry, breakfast room, and covered porch, but no dining room. The exterior was to be covered with resawed siding and roofed with shingles. The irregular massing and roofline and the window treatments are typical of the Greenes' vocabulary, but the interiors are of a very practical nature.