After making Preservation Chicago’s annual list of most endangered historic buildings back in March, the J.J. Walser House has now been named one of the 10 most at-risk structures in the state by Landmarks Illinois.
That troubling designation was made last week by the group as it released its 31st annual such list.
The home at 42 N. Central Ave. in Austin was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and is the famed architect’s only West Side building. The now derelict home has suffered severe damage to its roof and foundation, and the deterioration is continuing.
Built by Wright in 1903 for Joseph Jacob Walser, a printing company executive, the home was purchased in 1970 by Anne and Hurley Teague. The couple worked to stabilize the home. It was named a Chicago Landmark in 1981 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2013. However, Anne Teague took out a reverse mortgage on the home, and after her death it went into foreclosure.
Multiple groups, including Austin Coming Together, are now working to save the house, which has been unoccupied for at least six years. The efforts to gain control of the Walser house are complicated by the foreclosure. Also working to salvage the house are Preservation Chicago, Landmarks Illinois and the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy.
Landmarks Illinois said that if the mortgage situation can be resolved, it is possible that that heirs of the Teagues might transfer ownership, possibly to Austin Coming Together.
