Stucco Bungalows on Arthur, 1915

Figure 1. Fifty Stucco Bungalows on Arthur Avenue

I've written several posts about collections of homes planned, designed, and built by early developers in the neighborhood.  These range from a few identical cottages to more complex arrangements.  These small-scale developments are found throughout Chicago, and their quiet existence probably accounts for most of the city's small-scale speculative residential development.

On the block of Arthur Avenue, with Clark Street to the east and the Union Pacific Railroad embankment on the west, stands an impressive collection of modest stucco bungalows built in 1915. Permit records show that Edgewater architect and developer Niels Buck designed these homes.  Two permits were issued: the first covered the homes on the north side of the block in April 1915, and the second covered the south side in October.

According to an article in the Chicago Tribune, Niels Buck, in partnership with Herman Becker, bought 12 1/2 acres in the area for $60,000 from Jacob Rehm in 1914. Construction costs were estimated at $230,000, likely including site improvements.

Figure 2. View from the west looking
towards Clark Street, 1921.

This was a high-quality development, with poured concrete curbs, walkways, sidewalks, and electric streetlights.  The tile-and-stucco construction was just as sturdy as brick, but at a fraction of the cost.

Figure 2 is a great photograph of the street in 1921, when you could still smell the paint. The image is available on Wikipedia, which considers it too old to be subject to copyright.  Still, I'd like to know where it originated...

Real estate developers in the city were responsible for tying their development into the city's street grid and extending utilities.  Quality construction was profitable to the developer, who wanted homes to sell briskly so they could move on to their next opportunity.  And in 1915, affordable homes in Rogers Park, with its strong transit ties and proximity to the lake, probably went like hotcakes.

Figure 3. A sample of the bungalow designs.

Although these were basically the same in square footage, the changes in massing and design avoid the appearance of repetition.  This was an advantage of having a developer who also functioned as an architect. For those who look closely, the block creates an almost perfect illustration of architectural variations on a theme.

I put Figure 3 together when I thought the block was comprised of repeating building types. But in actuality, they all seem a bit different.  And after a hundred years of modifications, it's even harder to make that conclusion.

Figure 4. Bungalow with boulder cladding.

Many of the homes on the block have since departed from the original design intent.  Enclosing open porches was common, especially after affordable air conditioning became available.  Rear additions and detached garages are also common. I'm guessing garages weren't included in the original development in order to keep prices low.  Sometimes homes were expanded upward, losing the original roof shape but adding substantial square footage.

Stucco is a surface treatment that required maintenance, repair, and sometimes replacement.  It wasn't such a stretch to replace one surface treatment with another.  The bungalow in Figure 4 incorporates a formstone cladding.  This was popular for home repair as early as the 1930s and was probably a bit cheaper than new stucco, which requires specialized installation skills.

Figure 5. Bungalow with renovations.

The home in Figure 5 has been altered just as much as the one above, losing the open porch and extending a new covered entrance porch.  In this case, the renovations followed some established patterns on the block, retaining the stucco and eave brackets and incorporating more traditional window details.

This block of Arthur represents the most extensive contiguous development I've found in the neighborhood. But I know there are many more out there.

Figure 4. Ad for Atlas Portland Cement Company from
American Builder, May-1918.  Accessed through Google Books.

Somehow I keep finding more information about this street!  Below is a page from a booklet found on Archive.org.  It even includes a fuzzy floor plan and some more detail about the construction method.  The cost of the homes is noted as less than $3,000, which is about $54,000 in 2018. Wow.

Figure 6. Industrial Housing, National Fireproofing Company-  published 1918
and accessed via Google Books.