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2 historic Rogers Park houses, one designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, donated to Loyola University Chicago

Real estate company donates two homes to Loyola University
Real estate company donates two homes to Loyola University 00:29

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Loyola University Chicago has acquired two new buildings in Rogers Park for free.

The Chicago real estate company TAWANI Property Management announced later last month that it is donating the Lang House, at 7421 N. Sheridan Rd., and the Emil Bach House, next door at 7415 N. Sheridan Rd. The historic houses are located on the east side of busy Sheridan Road between Jarvis and Fargo avenues.

TAWANI Property Management, the community investment branch of the Chicago-based property investment company TAWANI Enterprises Inc., is donating the two houses to Loyola. TAWANI is also donating $1 million to help operate and manage the houses.

"Emil Bach House and Lang House Chicago have a long-standing connection with TAWANI Property Management," TAWANI Property Management founder Col. Jennifer Pritzker, the cousin of Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, said in a news release. "This donation is intended to further Loyola University's mission, enhance its campus infrastructure, and underscore TAWANI's enduring commitment to supporting the community and fostering educational growth."

TAWANI managed both the Lang and Emil Bach houses for eight years — renting them out to guests for events. The historic homes drew guests from around the world — including families, couples, and business and leisure travelers, TAWANI said.

But TAWANI closed its hospitality division, and quit renting out the two houses, in December 2023.

Loyola is now more than pleased to add them to its campus — which is centered around a mile to the south on the lakefront.

"This remarkable gift of two historical properties to our campus is a testament to the enduring power of education and community," Loyola interim vice president for advancement Fr. Tom Neitzke, S.J., said in the release. "These spaces will serve as hubs for student programming, community events, and transformative experiences. We are deeply grateful to TAWANI Foundation for this generous contribution, which will enrich the lives of our students and foster connections that extend far beyond our campus."

About the two historic Rogers Park houses, one of which has a historic CBS connection

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The Lang House, 7421 N. Sheridan Rd., and the Emil Bach House, 7415 N. Sheridan Rd. TAWANI Enterprises Inc.

The Prairie-style Emil Bach House was designed by none other than Frank Lloyd Wright. According to the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, the house was built in 1915 for Emil Bach — the owner of the Bach Brick Company — who had breathing problems that he treated every day by walking out to his back porch and taking a swim in Lake Michigan.

The Chicago Architecture Foundation said Emil Bach was inspired to have Wright design a house for him after Bach's brother, Otto Bach, purchased another Frank Lloyd Wright house nearby in 1909. The Otto Bach House, which once stood at 7631 N. Sheridan Rd., was torn down in 1963.

Emil Bach and his wife Anna lived in the house until 1934, according to the Rogers Park-West Ridge Historical Society. The Emil Bach House is the only remaining Frank Lloyd Wright house in Rogers Park, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

The foundation notes that unlike broad and low-slung Frank Lloyd Wright houses like the Robie House in Hyde Park, the Emil Bach House features a compact footprint and cubic forms. But in line with Wright's other Prairie School masterpieces, the Emil Bach House also features overhanging eaves, a central fireplace, a cross-axial plan, and geometric wood trim.

The Emil Bach House also features three bedrooms, two baths, and a Japanese teahouse, TAWANI noted.

The American Foursquare Prairie-style Lang House was designed by architect Edgar Newman and built in 1919. It just so happens to have a connection to CBS and Chicago broadcast history.

Young brothers Ralph and H. Leslie Atlass founded AM radio station WBBM in the basement of a house in Lincoln, Illinois, in 1924. Later that same year, the Atlass family moved to Chicago and settled in Rogers Park — specifically in the Lang House — and the brothers brought the radio station with them.

As recalled in Chuck Schaden's 1988 booklet, "WBBM Radio: Yesterday & Today," the Atlass brothers at first also used the basement of the Lang House for broadcasts of the radio station.

Other notable Rogers Park buildings also claimed a connection to WBBM radio. In June 1925, the WBBM broadcast facility moved to the Broadmoor Hotel, located at Howard Street and Bosworth Avenue, and used its ballroom to broadcast live jazz and big band programs. Meanwhile, Schaden wrote, H. Leslie Atlass visited the fashionable Birchwood Country Club, located on Chase Avenue east of Sheridan Road, and decided to draft its six-piece orchestra to become the WBBM staff orchestra.

The Broadmoor was converted into an apartment building and remains standing. In the early 1940s, the Birchwood Country Club became the North Shore School — a private elementary school known for its science program, student theatre productions, and single-lane bowling alley in the basement lunchroom. The school closed in 2006, and the building was torn down a couple of years later.

Meanwhile, WBBM radio became affiliated with CBS in 1928, and CBS purchased the station between 1929 and 1931. H. Leslie Atlass became the vice president of CBS in Chicago, and later also the first general manager of WBBM-TV, Channel 2. Atlass died in 1960, by which point the broadcasting connection to the Lang House was a distant memory.

The Lang House also has a previous connection to Loyola. The Rogers Park-West Ridge Historical Society notes that the Lang House also served for a time as a boarding house for the all-women's Mundelein College, which merged with Loyola in 1991.

TAWANI noted that the Lang House has five bedrooms — each with an ensuite private bathroom — two fireplaces, a sauna, and a massage room. The top floor features a separate apartment with its own kitchen and fireplace, and two expansive decks and a patio can be found outside, according to TAWANI.

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