Austin Coming – A nonprofit community group in Austin says it has purchased the vacant J.J. Walser Jr. House, a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed landmark, for $125,000—after years of deterioration and legal limbo.
For three decades, the J.J. Walser Jr. House has sat vacant on Austin’s West Side, its Prairie School lines fading under the weight of neglect.
Now, Austin Coming Together says it has finally found the caretaker it has been waiting for.
The nonprofit announced Wednesday that it bought the vacant Frank Lloyd Wright–designed home at 42 N. Central Ave. for $125,000.
Built in 1903, the buff-colored wood-and-stucco residence is part of a set of circa 1900 homes along Central Avenue that reflect Austin’s early years as a Chicago neighborhood. The house is also a protected city landmark.
Austin Coming Together Executive Director Darnell Shields said the goal is to bring the home back as a learning space—somewhere visitors can study the house and the neighborhood’s architecture. culture and history. He pointed to the first floor’s open plan design. saying the layout could help the group host events and gatherings.
“[Visitors can] support our businesses and restaurants along Madison,” Shields said, adding: “And while they’re here, [visitors can] support our businesses and restaurants along Madison.”
“We’re really excited about the possibilities,” Shields said.
The purchase comes with a steep price tag before any doors can comfortably reopen. Shields said it could take at least $3 million to rehab and restore the home.
Even getting the building to a safer baseline won’t be simple. Shields said it could take $300,000 to $550,000 just to stabilize the structure.
The need is visible in what the nonprofit describes as a series of major failures: crumbling stucco and rotting exterior wood, severe roof leaks, a weakening load-bearing interior wall, and overall building deterioration.
The odds of pulling it off may be part of why the local preservation community has been paying attention for years. Austin Coming Together isn’t new to big, complicated projects.
The organization co-led the $41 million conversion of the former Robert Emmet Elementary School at 5500 W. Madison St. into the Aspire Center for Workforce Innovation, which specializes in job training and wealth-building. The center opened in 2025 and sits across Central Avenue from the Walser house.
That proximity matters now because it places the Walser restoration within a neighborhood that is already seeing investment—and because it turns the purchase into more than a rescue mission. The group wants the house to become a destination, not a relic.
But the road to this $125,000 deal ran through years of instability.
The house was bought by Hurley and Anne Teague in 1970. After Anne Teague died in 2019, the National Register-listed property deteriorated further and spent the next seven years in foreclosure and demolition court.
Eventually, the government-backed Federal National Mortgage Association—known as Fannie Mae—acquired the house in January and put it up for sale.
Shields said Chicago’s nonprofit Community Investment Corporation bought the house from Fannie Mae for $125. 000. then sold it to Austin Coming Together for the same price. As part of the transaction. CIC provided a $60. 000 grant to help cover the purchase price. and ACT paid the remaining $65. 000. Shields said.
“It took a lot of finagling and repositioning and everybody working together … to try to cut through red tape [and get] the property at a cost we could stand and look at it as feasible,” Shields said. “Because you know we’ve got a much longer journey ahead.”
The rehabilitation will require more than money—it will require coordination and endurance. Austin Coming Together has been working alongside preservation organizations that have spent years trying to keep the Walser from being lost.
Along with ACT, the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, Landmarks Illinois and Preservation Chicago have attended court hearings, raised public awareness, and even boarded up the house and trimmed its overgrown foliage.
Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy Executive Director Barbara Gordon said she supported ACT taking ownership.
“ACT understands the potential waiting to be unlocked by revitalizing this landmark Frank Lloyd Wright design. celebrating Austin as a destination for notable architecture. ” Gordon said in a news release. “The organization’s deep roots in the community mean they know the rich stories the house can tell about how it has changed over time. and what Austin residents envision for its future.”.
Landmarks Illinois Advocacy Manager Kendra Parzen praised ACT “for its vision and determination to preserve … a nationally recognized architectural and cultural asset on Chicago’s West Side.”
The timing of this purchase—after a lengthy stretch of foreclosure and court battles—brings the building’s future into focus again. just as its original architectural intentions come back into view. As Shields and others describe it. the house reflects Wright’s early Prairie School approach. with horizontal lines. overhanging eaves and a second-floor band of windows that foreshadow what he would later build in larger. more celebrated residential commissions.
For a home that has endured years of neglect, the message from ACT is clear: now that the keys are in hand, the work starts—first with stabilization, then with restoration, and finally with a plan to open the doors to the public.
Austin Coming Together Frank Lloyd Wright J.J. Walser Jr. House 42 N. Central Ave. Prairie School Chicago landmarks preservation Fannie Mae Community Investment Corporation