“Keck’s House of Tomorrow,” Chicago World’s Fair, 1933–34,
America’s first glass house by Architect George Fred Keck,
The fair’s theme was “Century of Progress,” and five innovative homes were built as part of an exhibition to inspire a streamlined vision for the future. The single-family house was decades ahead of its time with an attached garage with a push-button opener, the first General Electric dishwasher, floor-to-ceiling windows, central air conditioning, and a modern open floor plan.
The glass-wall structure was innovative at the time, predating even Philip Johnson’s Glass House and Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House. The House of Tomorrow also represented an early manifestation of harnessing solar energy.
After the fair, Keck’s building—along with four other structures displayed at the “House of Tomorrow” exhibit—were moved by barge from Chicago’s Northerly Island to Beverly Shores in northern Indiana, about 60 miles southeast of downtown. The site later became part of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, overseen by the National Park Service.
Image courtesy of: Robert Boyce / Chicago History Museum / Courtesy of the National Trust for Historic Preservation / Hedrich Blessing
