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Photograph of Willits House
Photograph by User:JeremyA, CC BY-SA 2.5. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Ward Winfield Willits House

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

From the record

“Willits House is a historic house at 1445 Sheridan Road in Highland Park, a suburb of Chicago in Illinois, United States. Designed in 1901 by architect Frank Lloyd Wright, the Willits house is considered one of the first of the great Prairie School houses.”

Wikipedia article Willits House, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 98 National Register listings published here for Lake County · listed in 1980 · category: Building.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

  • What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
  • Listed as. Willits, Ward Winfield, House - the National Register files a house under its owner's surname.
  • Address. 1445 Sheridan Rd., Highland Park, 60035
  • When was it listed? November 1980
  • Category. building
  • Township. Moraine township
  • Architectural style. Prairie School architecture
  • Architect. Frank Lloyd Wright
  • National Register reference number. 80001380 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

2 since 2020

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 2 fires within 5 miles of Ward Winfield Willits House in 2020, burning about 23 acres in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Debris and open burning1
Equipment and vehicle use1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
15 December 2020Debris and open burning23 acresIllinois Division of Forestry Resources2020-2498
4 November 2020Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry Resources2020-2239

Every fire recorded in Lake County

Mines and quarries near this property

3 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of Ward Winfield Willits House: 3 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Stone. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Deerfield PitStonePast Producer
Glencoe City Engr. - Own CrewsStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Northbrook City Dept of Public WorkStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer

Every working recorded in Lake County

Storms near this property

7 since 2008

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Highland Park, the town this property stands in, in 7 storm reports between 2008 and 2025: 3 hail, 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 flood, 1 lightning. The reports record 2 injuries. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
August 2018LightningHighland Park2 hurtTwo women were returning to their car after a concert and sought shelter under a tree as a storm moved through the area. Lightning struck the tree and both women sustained cuts, bruises and burns.
June 2025Thunderstorm WindHighland Park-A private weather station recorded a 64 mph gust in Highland Park.
April 2023HailHighland Park-A photo showed hail up to the size of golf balls.
September 2021Thunderstorm WindHighland Park-A photo was shared on social media of a tree blown down near Highland Park.
July 2008FloodHighland Park-Many streets were flooded with six inches of standing water between Route 41 and Route 43 in Highland Park. Five inches of standing water was reported near Deerfield and Route 83.
August 2024HailHighland Park-no account filed
April 2023HailHighland Park-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Lake County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Photograph PropertyDistance Listed
Ross Beatty Houseunder 500 feet1982
Ernest Loeb House0.2 miles1983
Ross J. Beatty House0.2 miles1982
Sylvester Millard House0.3 miles1982
Haerman Lanzl House0.4 miles1982
Henry Dubin House0.5 miles1982

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 80001380 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Lake CountyAll 98 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

  • Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
  • Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
  • How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
  • Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
  • Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
  • Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.