John W. Ellis House

Influential architects including the likes of Frank Lloyd Wright, George W. Maher, and Walter Burley Griffin practiced widely in Beverly, but credit for dozens of Prairie School houses also goes to lesser-known contemporaries. One standout is the John W. Ellis House by prolific Blue Island-based architect Robert E. Seyfarth. The residence shares some compositional qualities with Maher’s work, for whom Seyfarth worked during his formative years. This includes its imposing mass, symmetrical form, and broad covered porch. Seyfarth’s Prairie phase was short lived, however. He emulated Maher for a time but then evolved his own unique and subdued take on classical revival styles seen in Beverly, Morgan Park, and across the region.