Glessner House

The Glessner House stands out because its exterior walls turn inward, presenting a fortress of smooth pinkish granite to the street with almost no windows. When John and Frances Glessner built this home in eighteen eighty-seven, they rejected the ornate Victorian style popular in Chicago. They hired architect Henry Hobson Richardson to create a private courtyard house. Inside, the rooms open onto a glass-walled gallery that captures sunlight, a design choice that famously drew complaints from neighbors who called it a prison.