ABOUT CHENEY MANSION

The Cheney Mansion
220 North Euclid
Oak Park, IL 60302
Phone (708) 383-2612
Fax (708) 383-6485

The Park District of Oak Park, with the help of consultants from Wolff Landscape Architecture, has begun to develop a site plan for the grounds surrounding Cheney Mansion. A site plan is a blueprint for future park renewal. Click on the link for more information!

A 1970 Survey of Historic Buildings in Oak Park describes Cheney Mansion as a “simplified rectilinear design of first rank in architectural quality, significance, and originality.” The architect, Charles E. White, Jr., a graduate of MIT, came to Oak Park after marrying local Alice Roberts. For two years, beginning in 1903, White worked in Frank Lloyd Wright’s studio, and was strongly influenced by Wright’s credo that a building should express the spirit of its natural surroundings. White also designed a number of Oak Park residences and the Oak Park Post Office. Jens Jensen, a well-known landscape architect, worked with White on several projects.

One of White’s most important works, the 12,000-square-foot Cheney Mansion, designed in 1913 boasts many handsome reception rooms, six bedrooms, seven bathrooms, and separate servants’ quarters. The two acres of beautifully-landscaped grounds also include a coach house and a greenhouse. Located in the Historic District of Oak Park, the home was built for the Sharpe family. In 1922, it was purchased by Andrew and Mary Dole. Their niece, Elizabeth Cheney, inherited the mansion in the late 1940s. Though she deeded it to the Park District of Oak Park in 1975, no funding was designated for its support.

A Perfect Setting
The Mansion, with its spacious rooms and landscaped grounds, is available for your most special occasions: weddings, private parties, recitals, memorial services, luncheons and tours. It provides the perfect setting for corporate seminars, meetings and receptions.

HISTORY

GARDENS

DRIVING DIRECTIONS