The House that A POTTERY BUILT

William Day Gates, founder of an important terra-cotta tile and pottery company, built his retirement home in 1927. Decades later, it would take a knowledgeable Arts & Crafts collector to save the abandoned house in Illinois. Chicago architect John Eifler helped guide the restoration: “The house is a terra cotta and pottery catalog!” he says.

By Regina Cole

“Although the house WAS A MESS,” SAYS ARCHITECT JOHN EIFLER, “THE LAYOUT AND MANY KEY ELEMENTS WERE INTACT. THE ENORMOUS WINDOW AND SEVERAL EYEBROW WINDOWS REMAINED. ORIGINAL GLASS SURVIVED. WE FOUND BOXES OF TILES …” WHEN, IN 1927, William Day Gates built his retirement home, in Crystal Lake, about 50 miles northwest of Chicago, he aptly named it “Trails End.” Gates, the founder and president of the American Terra Cotta & Ceramic Co., apparently used whatever materials were lying around at the factory. He lavishly applied tiles inside and out and even used packing materials in the structure of the house itself. Gates’ Illinois company made architectural terra cotta for more than 8,000 buildings in the United States and Canada, among them the socalled “jewel-box” banks designed by Louis Sullivan, Chicago’s Carson…

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Old House Journal (Digital) - 1 Issue, Arts & Crafts Homes 2025

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