William Eugene Drummond - The Prairie School Years

The Prairie School Years

Thereafter, Drummond began working in Chicago in the firm of architect Louis Sullivan. Several months later, he went to work for Frank Lloyd Wright. Drummond would serve as the chief draftsman for several well-known Wright’s commissions including the home of Edwin and Mamah Borthwick Cheney in Oak Park, the Frederick Robie House in Chicago, the Susan Lawrence Dana House in Springfield, IL, and the Larkin Company Administration Building in Buffalo. Drummond obtained his architect’s license in 1901. In the years 1901-1905 he worked for Wright part-time while also working full-time for Richard E. Schmidt (1901-1902) and Daniel H. Burnham (1903-1905). Drummond returned to full-time employment with Wright from 1905 to 1909, when disagreement about pay caused him to leave Wright’s studio. But Drummond was a key figure in Wright’s studio during its most productive Prairie years. As Wright’s son, John, relates:

“William Drummond, Francis Barry Byrne, Walter Burley Griffin, Albert McArthur (Albert Chase McArthur), Marion Mahony, Isabel Roberts and George Willis were the draftsmen. Five men, two women. They wore flowing ties, and smocks suitable to the realm. The men wore their hair like Papa, all except Albert, he didn’t have enough hair. They worshiped Papa! Papa liked them! I know that each one of them was then making valuable contributions to the pioneering of the modern American architecture for which my father gets the full glory, headaches and recognition today! ”

In 1907 Drummond married Clara Alice McCulloch Christian (1874-1938), a woman several years his senior whose first husband died of tuberculosis. Their union produced three sons: Robert, William and Alan. In 1910, Mary Roberts, Isabel Roberts’ mother, sold the property next to their celebrated River Forest, IL, Isabel Roberts House, to their friend and associate William Drummond, who built his own Prairie style home there.