SPRINGFIELD, IL – The most special holiday weekend of the year for the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Dana-Thomas House State Historic Site in Springfield is approaching:  Friday through Sunday, December 16 – 18.

 

            Friday, December 16 from 4 to 8 p.m. is Family Night, with all persons admitted free, although a donation of $1 per person is suggested.  The site hours on Saturday, December 17 and Sunday, December 18 will be 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., with live music filling the house during the afternoon and evening.  Evening tours allow the public to see this pristine example of Wright’s American architecture with its one-hundred-year-old 1904 era light levels and to enjoy the many illuminated holiday trees and decorations.  Special holiday tours will be conducted from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. with the usual suggested donation of $3 for adults.

 

            The season’s most popular event at the Dana-Thomas House, Luminaria Evening, will be held Sunday, December 18 from 4 to 8 p.m.  One thousand candles in paper sacks will line the sidewalks and horizontal ledges of the sprawling, 12,600-square-foot Prairie style structure.  Conducted tours on Luminaria Evening are silent except for the live music being played in the house.  There are no architectural narrated tours on this evening.  Regular holiday tours will be held until 3:30 p.m., with the Luminaria display starting at 4 p.m.  Now in its 21^st year, this event attracts hundreds of visitors, as well as hundreds more who drive or walk by to see the lighted home.  The suggested donation is $3 for adults and $1 for children.

 

            Another special event, Children’s Story Hour, will be held Thursday, December 29.  Call the site for reservations for both children and accompanying adults.

 

            The Dana-Thomas House will be closed on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, reopening for regular architectural tours on Saturday, January 7.  The site is closed Monday and Tuesday throughout the year, including the month of December.  Saturday, December 31 is the final day to see the house decorated for the holidays - hours that day are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

 

            All holiday events at the site are sponsored by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, which administers the Dana-Thomas House, and the Dana-Thomas House Foundation.

 

            The Dana-Thomas House State Historic Site was designed by world-famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright and built in 1902 – 1904 for Springfield socialite Susan Lawrence Dana.  The restored house is the most complete of Wright’s early Prairie Style dwellings, with more than 100 pieces of original Wright-designed furniture and more than 450 art glass windows and fixtures.

 

            Susan Dana unveiled her newly-constructed house in December 1904.  The site staff and Foundation volunteers have rebuilt her 1904 Country Store in the residence’s basement bowling alley and billiard room.  It may be seen and purchases made there until December 31.  The celebration of the centennial year of the site concludes this December’s events.