William and Frederick Grier will receive a national preservation award for rescuing a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home at 404 Home Ave. that the village of Oak Park had declared uninhabitable.

The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy announced Wednesday, Sept. 30, that the Griers earned a 2026 Wright Spirit Award in the Private Category for restoring the George and Lucy Smith House, one of Wright's earlier Oak Park designs, as first reported by the Wednesday Journal. The awards, given annually since 1991, recognize people who make extraordinary commitments to preserving Wright's built works. The Conservancy will present the honor Nov. 7 at its annual conference in Scottsdale, Arizona.

The 1898 Shingle-style home had been in the same family for 60 years before hitting the market in 2023. It sold for $485,000 in March 2023, according to the Wednesday Journal's August 2024 profile of the restoration. The home lacked original floor plans and needed extensive work.

John Waters, preservation programs director with the Conservancy, said he and executive director Barbara Gordon visited the house when it was first listed. He said the village had declared the home uninhabitable, and it sat unprotected despite being in a historic district, Waters said.

Frederick Grier trained in architecture at the School of Architecture at Taliesin, according to Waters. Over a six-month renovation, the couple transformed the three-bedroom, one-bathroom house into a five-bedroom home with three full and two half bathrooms without building an addition, the Wednesday Journal reported in 2024. General contractor Robert Jahn Construction, which had previously renovated other Wright homes, handled the work.

The couple also excavated the basement to create livable space and preserved original Wright details, including diamond-paned windows, a Roman brick fireplace and built-in shelving, according to the 2024 profile. The home had narrowly escaped demolition once before: neighbors launched a letter-writing campaign to save it in 1962.

The Griers are raising their family in the restored home, according to the Conservancy.

The Conservancy also honored attorneys John J. Lydon and Michael Rachlis with a separate Conservancy Award for pro bono legal work that helped save the J.J. Walser House at 42 N. Central Ave. in Chicago's Austin neighborhood. That Wright home was in foreclosure and poor physical condition before being purchased by the nonprofit Austin Coming Together, which plans to restore it as a community hub.

Other 2026 Wright Spirit Award recipients include Amy and Eric Bauer for restoring the Baker House in Wilmette and Shelley Hayreh for her work preserving the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives.