Darlene Larson, in the early 1970s, began a passion project to restore the Fabyans' former Riverbank Estate in the Fabyan Forest Preserve. The organization she started in 1979, Friends of Fabyan, voted to affiliate with Preservation Partners of the Fox Valley (then named Restorations of Kane County) in early 1980. Together, our two organizations cooperated with the Forest Preserve District of Kane County on the restorations of the Fabyan Japanese Garden, Fabyan Villa, and Fabyan Windmill. In 1983, Darlene Larson, president of Friends of Fabyan, and Patricia "Trish" MacLachlan, restoration chairman of Friends of Fabyan, applied to the National Park Service to nominate the Frank Lloyd Wright 1907 re-designed Fabyan Villa to the National Register of Historic Places. On February 9, 1984, the application was approved! Today, the Fabyan Villa Museum is operated by Preservation Partners for the Forest Preserve District of Kane County and is open to the public from May to September. To learn more about Darlene Larson's legacy of ensuring the preservation of the significant history of the Fabyans, visit the Geneva History Museum for their special exhibit on Darlene opening February 10, 2024.
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PHOTO: 1915 west view of Fabyan Villa.
SOURCES: "Another Project?" Restoration Advocate 1, no.5 (February 1980): 2; "A Thought or Two From Your President," Restoration Advocate 1, no. 6 (April 1980): 2; "Friends of Fabyan," Restoration Advocate 5, no. 6 (April 1984): 1; "Fabyan Villa," National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form, January 9, 1984.