The Glessner family lived in this house for fifty years, through the rise and decline of the Prairie Avenue neighborhood. John Glessner cherished the home as a symbol of happy family life, and the interiors of Glessner House demonstrate the nearly perfect collaboration between the architect and his clients. Designed during the so-called Gilded Age, when America’s newly rich industrialists were living in modern-day castles, Glessner House represents Richardson’s response to the Glessners’ desire for a simple, comfortable home that retained the “cozy” feeling of their previous home on West Washington Street.