So, you bought an old wreck of a house and toiled away for years, fixing, repairing, replacing. Or maybe you were lucky enough to buy something more presentable, and you’ve kept it that way, through the inevitable hard work it takes to keep up Oak Park’s mostly aging housing stock. Do you think anyone cares?
Well, yes. More than 30 years ago, the village established the Cavalcade of Pride awards to foster community pride and encourage residents to reinvest in their properties during a time of uncertainty. Now under the direction of the Community Design Commission, a group of volunteers who meet to review aesthetic issues and comment on projects that affect Oak Park’s overall landscape, the awards remain a prized pat on the back.
“It’s funny,” says commission chair Bob Tucker. “A lot has gone on in the last 30 years, and perhaps the awards used to be more important to Oak Park. But we still really want to recognize and reward people who continue to invest their time and efforts. Properties here keep getting better and better.”
Last month, award-winning owners of homes and commercial properties, along with representatives of St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church and the Park District of Oak Park, were presented with framed photos and certificates as they were feted, fed and applauded at village hall.
Cavalcade of Pride awards were presented in the categories of single family, multifamily, commercial, good neighbor (for a property adjacent to Oak Park), garden, special award (for municipal or religious organization properties), block, best transformed property and best sign. A final category, best parking lot beautification, was not awarded this year. (For a complete list of the winners, see the sidebar at right.)
According to Tucker, properties occasionally are nominated by neighbors, but most often are identified by the commissioners, who divide the village into zones and, with the help of some additional volunteers, canvas every property. It’s a three-step process, with nominees winnowed down to semifinalists and then finalists. Only exteriors are considered.
For the single family home category, an award is given in each of nine zones to ensure that recognition is spread evenly throughout the village.
“Generally we look for appearance, maintenance, landscaping and relationship to surrounding properties,” explains Tucker. “That last one is important. And it’s not necessarily just done?#34;it may be something we just noticed.”
Size definitely doesn’t matter. “It’s easy to give [an award] to a Painted Lady or a Frank Lloyd Wright,” he notes. “It’s nice to reward a small bungalow. Those are important, too.”
Transformations
Bob Clements, acting director of Development Services for Oak Park and staff liaison for the Cavalcade of Pride awards, explains that the best transformed property category was created three years ago to honor “property that went from nice to incredible, and took time to get there.”
The two winners in the category this year would respectfully disagree with the “nice” part. Elisabeth Jacobsen describes the 1887 Victorian she and husband Paul bought nine years ago as “pretty bad.” And the odd little one-story brick building a few feet from their home at 644 Woodbine Ave. didn’t help.
That mini-building was once a gas regulator station, made obsolete when the gas company switched from a low-pressure system with gas meters inside homes, to a high pressure system with outside meters.
Made to look a bit like a little house, the brick box was part of the property when the Jacobsens bought it. “We thought we’d take it down and enlarge the yard, but it turned out to be a huge ordeal and too expensive,” explains Elisabeth, who notes that the walls go 8 feet into the ground.
“The kids used to call it ‘the bunker,'” she says.
After going a few rounds with the Historic Preservation Commission, the couple instead was given permits to incorporate the building into their home. By adding a second level to the regulator station (it’s still lower than the second floor of the house), they created a great room that attaches to their first-floor kitchen. Paul, who does renovations as a hobby, did most of the work himself.
“It’s just a few steps up from the kitchen,” Elisabeth explains. “It’s now a big open space with a balcony. We use it as a family room; it’s great for our seven grandchildren.”
In order to make the addition of the mini-building to the house appear seamless, the Jacobsens sided it to match the clapboards on the main house. “I think the siding is the reason we got the permits; the Historic [Preservation] Commission wanted us to take it down,” says Elisabeth.
Turning the odd old building into useful space was just a part of the couple’s transformation of their property. Old hands at the process?#34;longtime Oak Parkers, this is the fourth house they’ve restored?#34;they plastered, stripped floors, painted walls and generally rescued the interior. Instead of replacing the windows, which would have been easier, they opted for restoring the originals.
Outside, they scraped, painted and rebuilt the clapboard siding. Relying on a 1940s-era photo of the house, they built a front porch “as close to the original as we could,” says Elisabeth.
The last project this year was landscaping. “I planted 37 rose bushes, but then the drought happened,” she recalls. “But we muddled through.”
Receiving the Pride award was a “nice” surprise, she says. “We’re clueless who nominated us. But it’s been fun and gratifying.”
The other winners in the transformed property category, Kathy and Tony Iwersen, are also veteran house rescuers. “This is the fifth house we’ve done in Oak Park. We’ve been here 25 years and we love it,” says Tony.
Their current home at 1033 Superior St. was their “most ambitious” project to date, he adds. “It was awful. We bought it from a church eight years ago. They’d used it as a rooming house for folks transferred here from other countries.”
A Queen Anne-style Victorian, it had been chopped up into lots of little rooms. Aluminum siding, added in the 1960s, completed the home’s betrayal.
Seeing a mess and envisioning a masterpiece takes “vision. It’s not for the faint of heart,” observes Iwersen. “Where someone else sees what is, we go, ‘Wow. This could be something.'”
And now it is. Although he’d done a lot of the work himself on previous houses, a good architect and two very skilled carpenters made this project possible, he says.
Interior work included stripping all the remaining woodwork and recreating and replacing what had been lost, replacing the mechanical systems, and restoring the windows. In the rear of the home, the couple added a 14-foot addition, with a large kitchen and huge dining and family rooms. The original kitchen was turned into a half bath.
On the exterior, the aluminum siding was removed and the original clapboards restored and painted an off-yellow, with taupe and burnt red trim. Wraparound porches were added front and back, to match the original front porch pictured in a found 1957 photo. The design includes about 20 white columns.
Although they get a lot of attention from tourists because of their proximity to the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio, Iwersen says that being recognized with a Cavalcade of Pride award was an unexpected surprise. “We were shocked. It’s our first time. It’s pretty cool, very nice.”
A job of this magnitude “takes lots of time and patience,” admits Iwersen, who notes that the work was done in stages, “with the kids around and our dogs hanging out the windows or being pulled out of holes in the floor.”
But everyone survived, and the large rooms in the 5,000-square-foot home are perfect for the family’s needs. “We can accommodate everyone now,” says Iwersen. “We’re party central.”
Single family property
Lori Armour
700 Woodbine Ave.
Michele and John Donley
731 Linden Ave.
Michael and Natalie Connolly
536 N. Humphrey Ave.
Sharon Hermanns and Sumner Farren
423 Forest Ave.
Mary and Billy Desomma
143 S. Elmwood Ave.
Peter and Susan Tirone
162 N. Harvey Ave.
Mark Kraus and Carian McLean
526 Clinton Ave.
Nick and Deanne Alexander
808 S. Elmwood Ave.
Daniel Sullivan
834 S. Lombard Ave.
Multi-family property
Randolph Crossing condominium
241-245 S. East Ave. and 610-612
Randolph St.
B. Tinsley and R. Carswell
600-602 S. Euclid Ave.
Best transformed property
Paul and Elisabeth Jacobsen
644 Woodbine Ave.
Kathy and Tony Iwersen
1033 Superior Ave.
Commercial property
Nola’s Cup
800 S. Oak Park Ave.
Penny’s Noodle Shop
1130 Chicago Ave.
Block award
The homes of 800 N. Kenilworth Ave.
Special award
St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church
545 S. East Ave.
Barrie Park & Center
Park District of Oak Park
Garfield Street and Lombard Avenue
Garden award
Don and Mary Jo Pikul
1024 S. Kenilworth Ave.
Julia Latoria-Eastwood and Peter Eastwood
938 N. Grove Ave.
Best sign
Exceptional Tots & Toddlers Preschool
Steven and Brenda Campbell, owners
206-210 1/2 Chicago Ave.
Willow
Ms. Dryad, owner
141 Harrison St.
Good neighbor
Doctors of Internal Medicine
Dr. Neal Bente and Dr. James L. Greco
6723 Roosevelt Road
Berwyn
