An 11th neighborhood of Chicago bungalows has been named to the National Register of Historic Places, giving another group of city residents bragging rights, as well as a potential property tax freeze if they undertake substantial home renovations.
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The designation of homes in Portage Park follows designations during the past decade of Chicago’s Wrightwood Boulevard, Schorsch Irving Park, South Park Manor, Rogers Park Manor, North Mayfair, Falconer, Talman West Ridge, South Shore, West Chatham and Auburn Gresham neighborhoods.
Plenty of additional applications are planned by the Historic Chicago Bungalow Association, which estimates that there are at least 80,000 bungalows in the city, representing about one-third of the city’s housing stock. The group has started the work to prove that the Brainerd neighborhood on the South Side should be the 12th nationally recognized local bungalow district.
What makes a bungalow a historic Chicago bungalow? According to the association, it fills the bill if it was built from 1910 to 1940, has face brick with stone trim, a side entrance or noncentered front entrance, 11/2 stories and a full basement, among other features.
Formed 14 years ago by then-Mayor Richard M. Daley to protect these homes, the nonprofit bungalow association has seen its mission broaden with the times and its reach expand to 16,000 members, including a new generation of buyers keen on the style’s practicality and durability.
“There is a changing of the guard, and there are young people buying them,” said Mary Ellen Guest, the association’s executive director. “They either are really preserving them or they know that the shell is marvelous and they are modernizing the entire inside.
“We are very supportive of both of those” projects, she continued. “We are not the bungalow police. One of the beautiful things of these homes is they are adaptable, and people are adapting them for each generation.”
Armrhad Johnson is among that new generation of bungalow owners intent on preserving the past. As a first-time homebuyer, he bought a three-bedroom, one-bath bungalow in the city’s Auburn Gresham community in 2009 and tackled its interior.
The stairs to the attic were relocated from the bathroom to an addition built at the back of the house. The electrical system was upgraded. The brick fireplace, painted white, was blasted with baking soda, and despite the five hours of mess, attractive pale brick was discovered underneath. The shag carpet in the living and dining rooms was pulled up to reveal the original wood floors, with sections of a newspaper from the 1940s stuck to it. The floor was then refinished.
In 2011, Johnson and his wife, Cicely, received the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation bungalow award for the best interior restoration of a Chicago bungalow. In 2012, the neighborhood’s bungalow district was listed on the national register.
“Even if my house wasn’t to become part of the historic district, I wanted to keep the history alive,” he said. “I just wanted the comfort of knowing everything is done right and everything is historically preserved. From what I hear, these houses will last another 100 years.”
To help preserve, update or make the homes more energy efficient, the association maintains a resource and referral list that includes more than 350 companies vetted by the association. Companies cannot pay to be on the list.
To offer more help, the bungalow association is sponsoring the Chicago Bungalow and Vintage Home Expo at two locations in the next six months: Oct. 25 at the Jacoby D. Dickens Center at Chicago State University on the South Side, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., and March 7 at an undetermined location on the North Side. The event, which will include workshops, demonstrations and face-to-face mini-consultations with residential architects, is free.
Last month, more than 100 people attended a seminar about expanding bungalow attics.
“We think this trend of folks really wanting to learn how to work on their homes is really good news for city neighborhoods,” Guest said.
The Portage Park district, bounded by West Pensacola Avenue, North Lockwood Avenue, West Hutchinson Street and North Central Avenue, includes 189 historic bungalows built from 1915 to 1930, as well as other bungalows, two-flats and brick garages.
The association will mail letters to each home in the new district to make them aware of the designation and what it means. It does not mean homeowners are prevented from making changes to their homes.
In fact, to be eligible for an eight-year property tax freeze on a district home, owners have to undertake renovations that are valued at 25 percent of the home’s market value.
Forty years ago, Annette Ledermann and her family moved into a 1927 corner bungalow in Portage Park, paying $49,000 for the home. She has found that trying to keep an old house intact is expensive, but looking back, she’s so glad she resisted making major changes.
Guests still “ooh and “ahh” over the art deco bathroom with its big mirror, the kitchen with its metal cabinets, the original light fixtures, stained-glass windows and plastered cove ceilings.
“These homes aren’t being made anymore, and they have all the bells and whistles and they’re so strong,” Ledermann said. “All of these houses around here have such style and personality.”
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