The WCTU headquarters in Frances Willard's cottage

Frances Willard moved to Evanston at 18 to attend the Northwestern Female College. Her father, Josiah Willard, built a house in 1865, which remains as the southern portion of the current structure. Willard eventually moved into the house in 1871, calling it "Rest Cottage" because it became a place for her to rest in between her tours and WCTU activities.

After resigning as Dean of the Women's College at Northwestern in 1874 following a dispute with President Charles Henry Fowler, Willard focused on the study of temperance. She traveled the East Coast to meet with advocates and returned to Evanston to help found the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). After her brother Oliver died, Willard expanded the house in 1878 to accommodate his widow and four children. Once they moved to Germany, she rented out the northern section to friends and fellow WCTU members, and it served as an informal headquarters.

Willard died in 1898 and bequeathed the entire house to the WCTU in her will. Two years later, the WCTU made the house its national headquarters and established it as a museum dedicated to Willard. In 1910, the organization built the Literature Building in the rear of the property.

The two-story house is in the Carpenter Gothic style, painted pearl grey with white trim. The front of the house has two columned porches, and the main facade features three gables with decorative trim and a turned finial in the center. The house contains seventeen rooms, most of which have oak and walnut flooring. It stands as a National Historic Landmark in Evanston, Illinois.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons