Built in 1865, it was the home of Frances Willard (1839-1898) and her family, and was the longtime headquarters of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU).

When she was two, her family moved to Oberlin, Ohio, a town recently founded by ministers who wanted to build a community with strong Christian morals.

In 1865, her father Josiah, who stayed in Evanston, built a house, which remains as the southern portion of the current structure.

Frances Willard returned to Evanston and moved in with her father in 1871 when she accepted a position as Dean of the Women's College at Northwestern.

Returning to Evanston, she helped to found the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and was elected its first corresponding secretary and first president of the Chicago chapter.

[3] Her brother Oliver died in 1878, and Frances decided to expand her Evanston home that April to accommodate his widow and four children.

After her brother's family moved to Germany, Willard began to rent out the northern section of her house to friends and fellow WCTU members.