Robert A. Millikan House | |
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| Location | 5605 S. Woodlawn Ave. Chicago, IL |
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| Coordinates | 41°47′33.75″N87°35′47.09″W / 41.7927083°N 87.5964139°W /41.7927083; -87.5964139 |
| Area | less than one acre |
| Built | 1907 (1907) |
| Architect | Tallmadge & Watson |
| Architectural style | Prairie School |
| NRHP reference No. | 76000699[1] |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | May 11, 1976 |
| Designated NHL | May 11, 1976[2] |
TheRobert A. Millikan House is a historic house at 5605 South Woodlawn Avenue in theHyde Parkcommunity area ofChicago,Illinois. Built about 1907, it was the home of AmericanphysicistRobert A. Millikan (1868-1953) from about 1908 until 1921, the period in which he made his most significantNobel Prize winning work. The three-story brick building earnedNational Historic Landmark status on May 11, 1976.[3]
The Robert A. Millikan House stands in Chicago's South Side Hyde Park neighborhood, northeast of theUniversity of Chicago campus at the southeast corner of South Woodlawn Avenue and East 56th Street. It is one of a sequence of three adjacent houses designed by the Chicago firmTallmadge & Watson and built about 1907. It is three stories in height, with a mainly brick exterior. It has a broad profile in the Prairie style, with slightly projecting broad gabled sections near the ends, and a narrower off-center entrance projecting. The full third level, and the second level of the entrance section, are finished in Tudor-style half timbering. Window placement and size are somewhat irregular. The building interior is relatively plain.[4]
Robert Millikan, an Illinois native who received the first Ph.D. in physics fromColumbia University, moved into this house about 1907. He was at the time serving as a professor and researcher in the University of Chicago physics department. It is there that he organized and performed his famousoil-drop experiment, which provided the most accurate measure of the time of the electrical charge of anelectron. He also established an experimental apparatus that was used to confirm thephotoelectric effect postulated byAlbert Einstein in 1905. For these works, Millikan was awarded the 1923Nobel Prize in Physics. Millikan was seen then as one of the leaders of growing American dominance in his field.[4]
Millikan moved out of this house in 1921, when he took a position at what is now theCalifornia Institute of Technology.[4] The house remains a private residence.
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