The Inverness home and Don's business was established with "seed money" from his parents and from Arnold Dahlke, Don's father-in-law. Gunnar and Ebba Erickson, Don's parents, commissioned their son to design a home that they could live in and that Don could show to prospective clients.Don left Talisen in 1951, and immediately proceeded to design the Inverness home, which, as family legend has it, he showed to Mr. Wright and Wright claimed the design to be his own. Undoubtedly, the design, Don's first architectural commission, was heavily influenced by Mr. Wright, but the design was Don's own. It would not be too many years later, that Don, in his late twenties, was designing award-winning homes which began to reflect his own unique architectural "stamp."
After residing in the Inverness home for about two years, the Erickson home was sold to David and Violet Gustafson in 1953. Featured in the "Chicago Daily News," in 1953 in an article entitled, "How Chicago Lives," the Gustafson's never did install a swimming pool. Instead, they commissioned Don to design and build a new home in 1957 in Winnetka, Illinois. Their new home was located at 1055 Starr Road, but was demolished in 2009, to make way for an addition to a neigboring home.The "Ocean Liner" house is now listed for sale. See sidebar to this blog under "Don's First Architectural Creation," for more information.
The Architect, Don Erickson, in his office at EMMCO Stairs, Des Plaines, Illinois.
Please contact me, or provide comments on this page, if you would like to submit information that you may have on the work and/or its history. And, if you would like to contribute to championing the preservation of the Don Erickson Legacy, please email me at the address posted under my profile.
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