SOLD! A Light, Bright Hillside Ranch by Architect William Cooley, Built for His Own Family
About a year ago, I got a phone call from a man named Bob. Bob and his wife, Sam, live in a Mid-Century Modern home in North Barrington, and they were thinking about selling the home. I was very happy to receive the call, not only because it was another opportunity to see what was probably going to be a very beautiful home, but because I’d been wanting to see this specific home for years.
The house across the street was for sale in 2017 and I’d been to a Broker Tour there. That was the first time I really got a good look at the house at 480 Eton Drive, in North Barrington’s gorgeous Biltmore subdivision.
Biltmore has a somewhat magical quality to it: I often hear that people moving here from the East Coast are particularly drawn to it, with its rolling hills, acres and acres of mature trees, and all surrounding the ~65-acre Honey Lake. There are lower areas and higher areas, and North Flint Creek runs through the neighborhood as well. It’s a nature-lovers paradise, with winding roads and beautiful views from many parts of the neighborhood.
So it was with great interest, back in 2017, that I stood out next to Eton Drive and looked at the house at 480. Clearly the home was in an excellent location, perched high up on a hill overlooking North Flint Creek, and the architecture is classic Midwest MCM: A long, low roofline with a strong horizontal element spans the width of the house. Above that, a low-pitched gable roof, with glass at both the front and back, elevates the structure in the central area.
The beautiful red front door is set back under a generous roof that greets you by presenting the home’s post and beam construction, with large picture windows on either side of the entryway, resting atop awning windows that open for ventilation. That long roof covering the front entry is paired with an even longer deck underfoot. It’s a truly elegant example of Mid-Century Modern architecture, and it’s no wonder.
When I visited Bob and Sam, I learned that the home was designed by Architect William Cooley, of Stade & Cooley Architects. Stade & Cooley were known for designing numerous churches in the area, but my understanding is that both Charles Stade and William Cooley also did a number of residential projects.
This home, as it turns out, is one that Cooley designed for his own family.
Perched on one of the most lovely spots in Biltmore, high above North Flint Creek, the home is a hillside ranch with main living areas on the main level – living room, kitchen & dining area, three bedrooms and 2 bathrooms – and then an additional two bedrooms, a rec room with dry bar, and Cooley’s former office, plus another full bathroom and utility area, on the lower, walkout level.
The home also includes a very spacious 2-story screened porch that’s on the lower level of the home overlooking the hill and creek, but is accessed through the dining area on the main level (with a door leading outside below, of course).
Some time after the house was built, a mud room and 3-car garage with workshop were added to the east side of the home. Cooley apparently loved cars and driving fast. In fact, it was this love that got him killed at the age of 41 when his “small foreign car” flipped over and threw him 70 feet, according to a small piece in the Chicago Herald Tribune from July of 1966.
Cooley is a bit mysterious: The plans for the house are stamped with “Stade & Cooley Architects”. The article referenced above lists him as being part of Cooley & Borre & Associates. But I haven’t been able to find out much info on either firm, which is especially surprising given that Cooley was supposedly a nationally-recognized and awarded church architect (as was Charles Stade). I did find a transcript of an interview with William Cooley by Studs Terkel from a year or so before Cooley died, but Cooley’s firm name isn’t mentioned in the interview.
(The AIA’s 1962 directory shows that Cooley’s firm was called Cooley & Borre & Associates. There’s no mention of him having worked with Charles Stade in that directory, but given that the house was built in 1955, it seems that Cooley worked with Stade at an earlier date)
Regardless, I am aware of at least one other home designed by Cooley, in another one of the Northwest suburbs.
But this. This home that Cooley designed for his own family. This is a special home. Yes, you get the linearity from that strong horizontal element. And you can see that low gable faced with glass. But it’s not until you get inside that you really can appreciate Cooley’s talent.
Immediately the home entices: You walk in and see straight through the living room, past the cantilevered fireplace hearth & massive copper hood, out the wall of glass at the back of the house, and into the trees that fill the landscape beyond. To the left is a hallway clad in rich, real wood paneling. More paneling is overhead, with exposed beams. To the right is the very bright, very open kitchen and dining area.
The central area of the home on this level is the real star of the show here, with the spaces delineated by the beautiful stone chimney stack. On one side is this wonderful elevated fireplace with its floating hearth and copper hood, with a high cabinet suspended to its right (I believe there used to be a floating counter underneath this cabinet, allowing for serving of drinks and food between the kitchen and living room).
To the left of the chimney stack, the space is open, allowing the window line to continue unbroken across the back of this volume: A perfect arrangement of operable, picture and gable windows that offers spectacular views out the back of the house.
Even without venturing further into the house, it’s easy to see why Bob & Sam fell in love with the house.
“From the outside,” says Sam, “the connection to the land and actually being on a ravine on Flint Creek was wonderful. We had been looking for a contemporary home on a ravine for 2 years by the time we saw this house. Inside, it was the openness and the fact that it wasn’t just another predictable house that appealed to us. It has incredible views and almost continued through the windows to the outside.”
On the south wall of the living room are a set of built-in bookcases, and next to them, one of the original dimmer knobs from when the house was built.
Around on the other side of the fireplace is the dining area, separated by a row of base and high cabinets, with French doors that lead to the 2-story screened porch below.
“The layout of the house was really just perfect for us,” says Bob. “I felt our family would be in a very functional home with a wide open feeling of being outside.”
And indeed, the home offers “treehouse views” out into the canopies of the many mature trees in and around the property.
On the opposite side of the chimney stack is an indoor grill, although many such grills in homes from the ’50s – ’70s are no longer usable.
The kitchen is a very nicely designed space, and what you notice in here is that it includes the “compression / expansion” found in some of the best-designed modern homes: The low-pitched gable roof is set back from the front of the house by about 8 feet or so, so there’s a flat ceiling over the front portion of the kitchen along that beautiful front window line, and the back half of the kitchen has ceilings that soar into that elevated roof line and continue to the back of the house. It’s a very clever design element that makes the kitchen feel simultaneously bright, cozy and open.
The kitchen layout itself is very clean, with a central island in the middle of an open “U” shape that has a wrapped post that continues up to support one of the columns in the gable. Cabinetry was likely built on site by the carpenters who built the house, and there’s a copper box hood over the range that coordinates with the copper hood over the fireplace in the living room.
The other end of the house has three bedrooms: Two in the front with large windows facing out over the front yard, as well as long, horizontal windows facing out the sides. These bedrooms are served by a full bath just out in the bedroom hallway, that features a walk-in shower. At the back of the house is the Primary Suite. Here, the Primary bath features original mosaic tile work and faucets for the double sinks.
The Primary bedroom itself has a wonderful wall of glass at the back, with soft, north light making the wood of the plank and beam ceiling glow during the day. There’s also a long, horizontal window on the side. Multiple closets, still with their original built-ins, a desk nook, and built-in bookshelves make this a particularly special place to rest and relax, especially with the views out into the back yard and down the hill.
An open stairway with angled risers – a perfect mid-century design detail – leads to the walkout level. To the left is a cozy family room / rec room with a dry bar and corner TV nook (amazing, capable of holding a decent-sized flat panel TV!) and rustic paneling that truly match the era during which the house was designed & built. The laundry and utility area can be accessed through this rec room.
Across the hall from here is the home’s 4th bedroom, complete with a full bathroom including walk-in shower, multiple closets, and a door to the back yard.
Next to this is a “double bedroom” with an accordion wall / curtain that can be used to close off the two halves of the bedroom to create separate spaces.
Finally, at the end of the lower level is what was originally William Cooley’s office, complete with brick fireplace, built-in racks for plans and other drawings, a built-in desk surface and a wall of cabinets backed by natural cork, plus another large window facing out to the back yard.
With so many fantastic spaces, it’s hard for Bob to choose his favorite.
“Every room has a unique appeal,” says Bob. “The kitchen, dining room, back porch and living room all combined with what we were doing yet a feeling of being at one with the outdoors.”
For Sam, though, it’s a bit easier for her to name her favorite space.
“I love the big back porch because of all the special occasions held there, from graduation parties, to welcomes for foreign visitors, wedding showers and more. There was always plenty of room for all.”
But of course a home on a property this beautiful is going to offer endless exposure to the natural surroundings, and Bob and Sam both have extremely warm memories of so much that’s happened in the 58 years that they’ve been in the house.
“We’ve gotten to see fawns being born right outside the windows,” says Sam. “The woods, the stream, steep hills for sledding, building forts in the woods. It’s been just a truly wonderful place to call home for all these years.”
Bob agrees.
“I’ve loved the ability to see nature, not walls, from most locations in the house. At any time, we can just walk outside and run, bike, or walk for miles in a quiet environment where one can hear nature instead of traffic.”
Bob & Sam have just downsized after all these years and great memories in their home, and it’s time for a new owner to live in, love and appreciate the many things this home has to offer for a calm and peaceful way of life.
This property sold on April 2nd, 2026.
Click any of the thumbnails below to see larger versions of the photos. Photography by Phil Hegel of Lux Home Photography.
