A George Maher Mansion and the Prairie School on Lowry Hill

The roughly 10,900-square-foot house, with six bedrooms on a half-acre lot, was designed by George Washington Maher (1864-1926), an American architect counted among the Prairie School and a contemporary of Frank Lloyd Wright. It came on the market in recent years listed at $2.14 million, and a nearby 1910 Prairie School house on Mount Curve has listed for as much as $2.85 million (startribune.com/1910-prairie-school-home-on-mount-curve-in-minneapolis-lists-for-2-85-million/600181092).

Maher is known for what he called his Motif-Rhythm theory, repeating a single design element throughout a house; the poppy recurs in the home's leaded-glass windows, French doors and built-ins. Open, flowing rooms and large windows were his trademarks, and the listing describes original elements preserved through later renovation.

The house stands out on a ridge dominated by Renaissance Revival and Italian Renaissance mansions built for the city's milling and lumber barons. Its horizontal lines and midwestern modern sensibility mark a clear break from the European precedents next door.

That mix is part of what preservationists prize about Lowry Hill. Within a few blocks the neighborhood holds Renaissance Revival, Italian Renaissance, Arts and Crafts and Prairie School work, much of it built within a few years of one another in the first decade of the 20th century. Architecturally significant houses like Maher's tend to carry a premium that square footage alone does not explain, which gives owners an incentive to restore rather than remodel away the features that make them valuable.