It is so easy to see Wright’s Home & Studio only as it exists today. A national landmark. Renovation complete. Teeming with tourists.
But in 1972, 44 years ago, it was a dumpy rooming house owned by a Mrs. Nooker. She didn’t see any particular way out of its mess and Frank Lloyd Wright was still seen by aging local elders as the somewhat despicable man who cheated on his wife rather than as the cult “Master” he has gradually become.
Enter John Thorpe, a very young architect and preservationist, who was giving walking tours of Oak Park’s notable homes and closed every tour outside the Home & Studio on Chicago Avenue. And it was John Thorpe who made the connection between Mrs. Nooker and a handful of Oak Parkers who saw the possibilities in this decrepit masterwork. It took two years to come to a deal, to create an actual entity to take title.
 John Thorpe was there at every step. On the nonprofit board, leading the architects who planned the restoration, living in the building for seven years as the work progressed.
Mr. Thorpe, who died last week at age 71 in his Oak Park home, went on to play vital roles at Unity Temple, Pleasant Home, the Historical Society of OP-RF. All the places where Oak Park’s heritage came to define its future.
Make a list of the most influential Oak Parkers of the past half century and there will be John Thorpe.