Susan Lawrence Dana

​Susan Lawrence Dana collaborated with Frank Lloyd Wright to design a home in which she could advance her ideas about education and democracy. She was a leader in the suffrage movement and worked with the National Woman's Party to write legislation that would have given women the same rights as men.

1862-1900

When Susie Lawrence was born on October 13, 1862, Illinois women had limited rights. Sex-based discrimination in employment and earnings was common and legal. Illinois women could not vote or serve on juries, and were expected to cede most financial and child custody decisions to a male head of household. Susan would dedicate her life to establishing equality between men and women.

Susan grew up in an Italianate home built by her father. In 1883, she married Edwin Dana and the couple settled in Minneapolis. The couple experienced tragedy in 1885 when their first son, Lawrence Henry Dana, was born December 19 and only lived 12 hours, and again in 1887, when their second son, Edwin Whitney Dana, was born August 22 and died just six weeks later on October 5.

As Edwin's career prospects dwindled, Susan noted in a letter to her father the unfairness of husbands controlling the family finances. In describing her parents' marriage and financial arrangements, she wrote of her mother, "she bore half the burden when it was heaviest. Does she not deserve half the return when it is coming in?" The couple eventually moved to Chicago, and then to Springfield.

1900-1923

When both her father and her husband died within a six month period in 1900-01, Susan and her mother, Mary Agnes Lawrence, were the primary heirs of the estate. In 1902 they hired Frank Lloyd Wright to remodel and expand their home. Completed in 1904, the 12,600 square foot Wright-designed home became not only a venue for lavish entertaining, but also a community center for education and the arts and a platform for the women's rights movement.

An advocate for education and literacy, Susan soon commissioned Wright for a second Springfield project – designing a library within the

Lawrence Elementary School (now Lawrence Adult Center). She also joined the stockholders board for the Hillside Home School, a progressive boarding school founded by Wright's aunts, Ellen and Jane Lloyd-Jones. In 1912, she purchased a set of Montessori educational materials and donated them to the Springfield community. She also sponsored scholarships and awards for local students, and hosted a weekly story hour for children in her home library.

In April 1909, Susan and friend Jane Addams organized a luncheon in her home for more than 100 suffragists from Chicago, who later joined a much larger group of suffragists for a day of lobbying at the State Capitol. Some progress was made that day, but it wasn't until 1913 that presidential suffrage was secured for Illinois women – the first state east of the Mississippi to do so. Full suffrage rights were not secured for Illinois women until the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified in 1920. Susan Lawrence Dana was recognized locally for her leadership in the suffrage movement.

Recognizing there was still much work to do, Susan became active in the National Woman's Party. In 1923, she helped to draft an equal rights bill for the state of Illinois and advocated for its passage. She invited nationally known speaker Anita Pollitzer, secretary of the National Woman's Party, to address Illinois legislators in her home about the importance of the bill. Despite working closely with a state legislator who assured the bill would pass, it did not.

1920s and Beyond

Susan spent much of the 1920s making her home a center for spiritual fulfillment, focusing on the impact of positive thinking on one's health and wellbeing. She encouraged groups like the Unity Church, Baha'is and theosophists to meet in her home, and was especially interested in supporting groups with women in leadership roles.

In the early 1940s, Susan would be placed in the care of nurses at St. John's Hospital due to her failing health. She died in 1946 at the age of 84, but left behind a legacy of community service. Important discussions about history, democracy, education and the arts still take place in her home today, now known as the Dana-Thomas House State Historic Site.

To Learn More About Frank Lloyd Wright, the Man Who Designed the Dana-Thomas House, Click Here

To Schedule a Tour of the Dana-Thomas House State Historic Site, Please Click Here.