Dana-Thomas House Festive Fridays

The volunteers of the Springfield Civic Garden Club have once again prepared a stunning array of holiday decorations for the Dana-Thomas House. We're pleased to offer the opportunity for you to enjoy their creations in the evenings.

On select "Festive Friday" evenings (see schedule for dates and times), your family is invited to join us for a 20-30 minute guided experience to see this year's holiday decorations. After your tour, join us in the courtyard to enjoy s'mores and hot cocoa by the fire. On select evenings (11/29, 12/5,12/19 and 1/02) Ben Bedford will also perform in the courtyard from 5:00-6:30 pm. Each evening will open with Early Bird tours of the home beginning at 4:00 pm; the final tour begins at 7:00 pm; the courtyard will close at 7:45 pm each night.

Looking for a tour that begins prior to 4:00 pm? See available times and reserve your daytime tour at

Prefer to tour the home on Thursday evening? Reserve a Thursday evening tour at (Note: the courtyard will be closed on Thursday evenings).

Holiday events are always very popular at the Dana-Thomas House, so reservations are encouraged. Guests without reservations are welcome to stop by the front door to ask about tour availability; additional guests will be added at the door if the tour has not reached capacity.

Important Notes:

1. The Dana-Thomas House includes 12,600 square feet of architecture, split over 16 levels separated by stairs. Please keep this in mind when reserving your tour. Questions about accessibility and requests for reasonable accomodation should be directed to [email protected].
2. Photography, video and other recording are only permitted outdoors; indoor photos, videos, and other recording are not permitted. A gallery of photos of the site, including interior images, is available at https://dnrhistoric.illinois.gov/research/photogallery.html Photo galleries of the holiday decorations will be posted to our Facebook (State Historic Sites at Springfield, IL) and Instagram (@statehistoricsitesspringfield) feeds.
3. Tours will begin at the front door of the house on Lawrence Avenue; please arrive a few minutes before your scheduled tour to meet your guide and check in.
4. To ensure a safe and meaningful experience, admission to the house will be by guided tour only; guests are expected to stay with their guide during the tour.
5. The evening tour experience is a shorter (20-30 minute) tour designed to allow guests to see the home in the evening light, view the holiday decor, learn more about how Susan Lawrence Dana celebrated the holidays, and enjoy family activities in the courtyard; it is different from the daily guided tours (one hour) that give a more detailed introduction to the home's history and architecture. If you are interested in a one-hour daily guided tours, you can view available times and reserve your tour at

About the Site

The Dana-Thomas House was designed and built between 1902-1904 by renowned American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. It was commissioned by Susan Lawrence Dana, a Springfield socialite, philanthropist, and activist who collaborated with Wright on his first "blank check" commission to design a home in which she could advance her ideas about democracy and education. At 12,600 square feet, with 35 rooms and over 100 art glass windows, when completed in 1904 it was the largest and most extravagant home Wright had designed thus far in his independent career as an architect. Today it is managed by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources; with most of its original furnishings and art glass still intact, it is one of the most complete of Wright's Prairie style homes in the United States.

Parking

The Dana-Thomas House is located at 301 East Lawrence Avenue in Springfield, Illinois. A free parking lot is located directly across the street from the house, at the northeast corner of Fourth Street and Lawrence Avenue. Additional free parking is located behind the house and west of the railroad tracks in the lot off of Cook Street.

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Host or Publisher Illinois Department of Natural Resources State Historic Sites Springfield