The Country Houses of David Adler

America's great house architect

The first comprehensive study of one of America's great house architects. The Country Houses of David Adler (1882-1949) discusses in depth fifteen representative houses (many with interiors by Adler's sister, the noted interior designer Frances Elkins), illustrated with fine archival photographs and newly drawn plans. In addition, the full scope of Adler's work is documented in an illustrated catalogue raisonné.

Traditionalist

David Adler and Frances Elkins grew up in Milwaukee, where their father was a prosperous clothing manufacturer. Adler graduated from Princeton in 1904 and studied architecture in Paris and Munich. His sister, Frances Elkins, whose education ended in high school, traveled with him to Europe.
David Adler was a traditionalist, producing houses mainly in a Georgian or Mediterranean vein, while Frances Elkins frequently juxtaposed antiques with crystal moldings, ebony floors and avant-garde furniture by Jean-Michel Frank and Alberto Giacometti.

Stephen M. Salny

Stephen M. Salny is an architecture and design historian who lives in Baltimore, Maryland. For 28 years, Stephen M. Salny, has been studying David Adler, a country house architect who practiced near Chicago from the 1910's to the 1940's, and David Adler's sister and collaborator, Frances Elkins, an interior designer who worked for Hollywood moguls and Midwestern industrialists.