Unity Temple, 875 Lake Street, Oak Park, Cook County, IL

Significance: Frank Lloyd Wright's design for Unity Church was conceived with the prime objective of giving exterior expression to a room of worship by subordinating the smaller auxiliary functions to the main room. One of the earliest experiments in the use of reinforced concrete in the United States, with the pebble aggregate exposed on the surface for texture, this church has a clearly defined exterior expression with its square stair towers at the corners giving added emphasis to the importance of the main room. The high windows, under the projecting roof slabs, separated by the ornamental masonry piers, give to the whole a perfect sense of scale and a true indication of the actual size of the building.
Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: FN-135
Survey number: HABS IL-1093
Building/structure dates: 1907 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: 1966 Subsequent Work
National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 70000240