Prairie School was a late 19th- and early 20th-century architectural style, most common to the
Midwestern United States. The style is usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or
hipped roofs with broad
overhanging
eaves, windows grouped in horizontal bands, integration with the landscape, solid construction, craftsmanship, and discipline in the use of ornament. Horizontal lines were thought to evoke and relate to the native
prairie landscape. The term
Prairie School was not actually used by these architects to describe themselves (for instance,
Marion Mahony used the phrase
The Chicago Group); the term was coined by
H. Allen Brooks, one of the first architectural historians to write extensively about these architects and their work.