Have you ever noticed that the growth of a town or city is a lot like the growth of a tree?
Both have rings of identifiable development relating to history. The defined rings in the cross section of a tree gives scientists clues to its age and the periods when it was stressed or thriving.
Drive through any community and you can get a rough fix on when the town was booming by the amount of housing of a given style.
I was reminded of that as I drove around suburban Bartlett, first settled by two farmer brothers named Bartlett in the 1840s.
In 1873, one of them, Luther, offered a railroad right-of-way through his property as well as a train station site. The first train came to the village soon after.
I don’t know if 390 people was enough to qualify as a “boom” town in 1900 in rural turn-of-the-20th Century America, but a smattering of houses from that period are among those clustered around a period train station in the community’s small commercial center.
Judging from the look of many of the houses as one drives through Bartlett, the boom came after 1970 when the suburb exploded from 3,700 inhabitants to 37,000. It spilled into three counties — Cook, DuPage and Kane — by 2000.
The village shows signs of looking forward. I passed a diverse group of men playing soccer on a field at the back of a residential neighborhood and across the street from a large components manufacturer at 11 a.m. Whether they were on a work break or having a mid-week team practice I don’t know, but the sight of mid-day fun with an international flavor struck me as healthy.
The recently opened Hindu temple in the far south part of the village will likely bring visitors. And Bartlett is embarking on a downtown revitalization with new housing developments.
Asbury Place by Edward R. James Homes is one of the developments. This 126-unit row house and townhouse project next to the railroad tracks will be linked to the downtown by Railroad Street, according to sales manager Danielle Chiovari.
Row house or townhouse — what’s the difference?
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It’s a good question and one I would urge anyone shopping for a home to ask in each development. The Webster’s dictionary on my desk defines a “row house” as “any of a line of identical houses joined along the sides by common walls.”
A townhouse is “a city residence” and a “dwelling typically two-story or three-story that is one of a planned complex of such, often continuous, dwellings.”
Definitions vary from builder to builder, however; so it is a good idea to make sure your definition is the same as the developer’s.
In the case of Asbury Place these monikers seem to be merely a matter of semantics.
The development is on a rectangular corner property with the Metra tracks at the northern boundary. A pond and an extension of Railroad Avenue divide the housing from the tracks. And south of this buffer, at the east side of the property, are two back-to-back lines of row houses with the garages facing a center alley.
One line of row houses faces Prospect Avenue. The other row will face an open green common space.
Townhouses will line the west side of the property and will be clustered north and south of the central common.
The one model at the development is the Dunbar, the largest of the row houses. At 1,911 square feet, it is a corner unit with three bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths and attached two car-garage.
The first floor entrance opens from a small porch into a foyer divided from the dining room by a half-wall.
A coat closet is to the right of the foyer and the living room, about 15 by 12 1/2 feet, is to the left and is open to the dining room.
The stairway to the second floor is behind the living room and to the left of the dining room. The kitchen and family room combined form an open room in the center of the residence that likely will be the heart of the house.
A powder room and a laundry room are behind the kitchen. A door in the laundry opens into the two-car garage at the back.
There is a door from the kitchen and family room into a 13-by-11-foot patio tucked next to the laundry room between the house and the garage. It’s a nice plan which provides access to the outside, a protected view and good natural light into the family room and kitchen.
At the top of the stairs, on the second floor, a visitor faces the hall bathroom, an adequate but smallish space. To the right are two bedrooms, each roughly 10 by 12 feet, each with a standard closet, at the front of the house.
The master suite, a pleasant 14-by-16 1/2-foot bedroom with windows on two sides, is at the back of the house. The master bath is off the bedroom and is shown sans tub, but with an extra-large shower.
The bath is an example of a well-planned space with good natural light. Another plus is that the sizable walk-in closet can be entered directly from the bedroom and is separate from the bath.
This is a home that a single or a couple would find most comfortable and as shown is about $360,000, or just under $200 a square foot.
Three people might be accommodated, if one of the three was a child. As decorated, this is a house aimed at adults and it is easy to imagine drinks in the family room before dinner in the dining room where six, possibly eight, could be seated.
But if the family Thanksgiving numbers 16, a buyer might want to give some thought to how well the space will work for oldsters who find crowds difficult and for youngsters to stretch their legs and play.
One helpful upgrade is a full-basement, $6,000 more, instead of the standard partial basement. The model is shown with a full basement and this adds a lot of kid-proof space for normal, rambunctious youngsters.
The builder is to be applauded for providing transition space for those coming in or going outdoors. The foyer is large enough to have a console on which to put keys, book bags and handbags while taking off coats or pulling wraps from the adjacent closet.
Although not truly a separate room, the half-wall that divides the foyer from the dining room gives that illusion while at the same time keeping the sight lines open for a spacious feeling. The half-wall protects the rest of the house somewhat from cold air when the front door is opened.
The placement of the laundry room between the garage and the kitchen seems to be a transition room, too, but it is really too small to work both as a laundry area and space for changing wraps.
The builder gets kudos for going an extra mile in the full landscaping in front of the row houses along Prospect Avenue.
I have no idea if the rest of the development will be so attractively planted, but every developer should follow this plan because it adds instantly to the appearance of the homes.
Less impressive, however, were some of the exterior details on the row houses. I saw dented or bent window frames and what appeared to be loose trim work where a window bay met the roof. Serious buyers might want to inquire about those.
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Asbury Place
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Address: 306 Prospect Ave., Bartlett
Developer: Edward R. James Homes
Phone: 630-372-4388
Web: www.erjames.com
Description: 54 row homes with two stories and two bedrooms plus loft or three bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths and attached two-car rear-load garages from 1,552 to 1,911 square feet, base-priced from $255,900 to $334,900. Also 72 two- and three-level townhouse plans with two bedrooms, two bedrooms plus loft or three bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths with attached two-car garage from 1,698 to 2,019 square feet, base-priced from $240,900 to $336,974. Monthly assessment, $68 to $77. Prices as of Aug. 16.
Amenities: 9-foot first-floor ceilings, sprinkler systems, partial basements in row homes. Finished lower levels in townhouses, landscaped yards.
Neighborhood: Next to Metra tracks and within blocks of town center, restaurants.