Progress on the Burnham Block, Chapter 2

The gift wrap at Frank Lloyd Wright’s American System-Built (ASB) Model C3 house at 1835 N. Layton Boulevard in Milwaukee takes the form of metal fencing around the property. The long-await restoration of the house is underway.

It wasn’t enough that Wright in Wisconsin, the precursor to today’s Frank Lloyd Wright’s Burnham Block, got one Save America’s Treasures grant to restore the house next door at 2714 W. Burnham Street, and then got a second hard-to-get SAT grant to restore the ASB duplex at the end of the block. No, they had to go out and achieve yet a third SAT grant to finally restore the “Pizza Hut” house that anchors the east end of the block.

The Burnham Block has six Wright ASB structures: the two single-family homes and four duplexes (one of which is now a VRBO single family home). All but the latter are owned by the Burnham Block organization. The house at 1835 has the “Pizza Hut” moniker because the mansard roof which came from two Pizza Hut restaurants in the 1970s. The stucco was covered with a “Perma-Stone” veneer in 1958, and the open porch was enclosed. All that will be gone, thanks to the SAT grant.

Mike Lilek has stewarded the Burnham Block projects since Wright in Wisconsin dipped its toes in the water in 2004 with the purchase of 2714, or the Richards Small House, next door to 1835 N. Layton, and restored it.

When the restoration is finished the enclosed porch at the right of the photo above will again be open, the veneer will be gone, as will the Pizza Hut roof. The background of the project, is in a piece I posted in November. The post includes a plethora of photos inside the house:

https://wrightinracine.net/2025/11/10/progress-on-the-burnham-block/

A glimpse of the what lies under the veneer is visible on the west side of the house.

Lilek sent me two photos taken by workers: “This photo is from the kitchen showing the ceiling demolition in progress. The 1916 ceiling is intact – above the joists visible in the photo. The ceiling being demolished was added in the 1950’s.”