Dana-Thomas House

Frank Lloyd Wright designed this Prairie-style home in 1904 for socialite Susan Lawrence Dana. With 35 rooms and the largest surviving collection of original Wright furniture, art glass, and lighting, it's one of the best-preserved Wright houses anywhere.

The Dana-Thomas House at 301 East Lawrence Avenue in Springfield is one of the best-preserved examples of Frank Lloyd Wright's "organic architecture," designed and constructed between 1902 and 1904. Unlike Wright's typical middle-class clients, Susan Lawrence Dana was an independently wealthy, progressive woman who commissioned what became his most elaborate residential project to date. The 12,000-square-foot home contains 35 rooms across 16 varying levels, with over 100 pieces of custom furniture and more than 250 works of original art glass.

Susan Dana lived in the home from 1904 until about 1928. Once a successful hostess and leader of Springfield's social scene, she became increasingly reclusive over time, turning her attention to spiritualism and the occult. In the early 1900s, the Spiritualist movement was prominent in America, based on the belief that communication between the living and the dead was possible through mediums.

Dana contacted a spirit medium who reportedly put her in touch with the spirit of her father, Lawrence, who expressed his delight with the new house. This experience sparked her lifelong fascination with contacting the other side. She held seances in the home and explored the endless possibilities she believed Spiritualism offered.

Although officially denied by the site's caretakers, strange occurrences have been reported for years. Springfield newspapers have documented stories of strange sounds--footsteps and hands clapping--heard in the otherwise empty building. Witnesses who have visited or worked in the house report eerie phenomena: humming voices, curtains that move on their own, chairs thrown down the stairs, and a woman in black--believed to be Susan Dana herself, still communing with the spirits she sought in life.

Governor James R. Thompson supported the state's 1981 purchase of the house, which underwent a three-year restoration to its 1910 condition. Much of Wright's original furniture was recovered, making it one of the most intact Frank Lloyd Wright interiors in the United States.