Frank Lloyd Wright's 1904 Prairie School masterpiece for a Spiritualist socialite who held séances here after losing her family — and reportedly never left.
301 East Lawrence Avenue, Springfield, IL 62703
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free guided tours; donations accepted
Access
Limited Access
Historic 1904 structure with multi-level interior; limited wheelchair access
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1904 · Frank Lloyd Wright Prairie School architecture · Most completely furnished surviving Wright Prairie home · Springfield Spiritualism and séance history · National Historic Landmark
Susan Lawrence Dana was the daughter of Rheuna Lawrence, a Springfield land developer who built a substantial fortune before his death in 1900. Inheriting the family property at 301 East Lawrence Avenue, Susan commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to design a new residence around the existing Italianate house in 1902. Wright demolished most of the earlier structure and produced one of his largest and most thoroughly realized Prairie homes, completed in 1904 with original art glass in more than 100 windows and 250 pieces of built-in furniture.
The commission came at a devastating point in Dana's life. Her husband Edwin Dana died in 1900, the same year as her father. Both of her infant children died young. Her mother, Flora Laurence, died in 1909. Surrounded by loss, Susan Lawrence Dana turned to Spiritualism — the 19th-century movement that held it was possible to communicate with the dead — with genuine conviction. She hosted séances in the home and established what she called the 'Lawrence Metaphysical Center,' turning the Wright residence into a gathering point for like-minded believers in Springfield.
Dana spent lavishly; the family fortune was largely exhausted by the 1920s and she sold the property in 1928. It passed through commercial uses — at one point serving as a publishing company office — before Illinois acquired it in 1944. The state undertook a long restoration and opened the building as a historic site; it is now operated as a free public museum and remains one of the best-preserved examples of Wright's early Prairie period, with most original furnishings intact.
Susan Lawrence Dana died in 1946 in a state mental institution in Bartonville, Illinois, where she had been committed in 1928. She is buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield.
Sources
Troy Taylor, who has documented Illinois haunted sites for more than two decades, compiled multiple independent staff accounts of unexplained phenomena at the Dana-Thomas House. Employees describe the sound of footsteps moving through upper-floor rooms that are confirmed empty; the footfalls reportedly stop when someone goes to investigate. Visitors have reported hearing clapping or applause from rooms with no one present.
The most specific reported incident involves a wall sconce that flew off its mounting on an anniversary of Susan Lawrence Dana's death — a detail that Dana-Thomas House staff have reportedly mentioned in tours when prompted. No mechanical failure in the mounting was found.
The legends sit on a credible psychological foundation: this was a woman who lost her husband, her children, and her parents in a short span, who dedicated significant resources to communicating with the dead, and who spent the final 18 years of her life in a state institution. Whatever one makes of the paranormal claims, the house carries the weight of genuine grief and unusual belief, expressed through one of the most extraordinary domestic spaces Frank Lloyd Wright ever built.
Notable Entities
State-operated guided tours through Frank Lloyd Wright's most completely furnished Prairie home, covering the original art glass, built-in furniture, and the life of Susan Lawrence Dana, including her turn to Spiritualism after the deaths of her husband, parents, and two infant children.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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