Burnham house faces wrecking ball

KENILWORTH, Ill., Aug. 22 (UPI) -- Preservationists are in a race to save a suburban Chicago home designed by esteemed Chicago architect Daniel H. Burnham.

They say the Prairie Style house with a distinctive wrap-around porch may be the only one like it left in the world.

The home was designed in 1908 after Burnham became famous for skyscrapers and buildings constructed for the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893.

"This is really a rare house," Kristen Schaffer associate professor of architecture at North Carolina State University, told the Chicago Tribune. "It's not speculative; it's documented."

The house could be torn down any day by developer Antoinette Vigilante, who has a demolition permit from the village. Because Kenilworth has no preservation ordinance, officials said there is nothing they can do.

With no ordinance in place to stop demolition, preservationists are looking for potential buyers. Vigilante has not placed the home on the market but last week allowed at least one prospective buyer in to view it, the newspaper said.

Marge Johnsson, chairwoman of Magnolia Restorations, a historic-renovation consulting company in Winnetka, said she planned to place a bid on the house.