Bungalows are one of the calling cards of Chicago-area residential architecture, and hundreds of these brick 1½ -story structures dot the Oak Park landscape. In the Gunderson Historic District on Elmwood Avenue, a pair of distinctive bungalows stand out from the crowd. Designed by Roy J. Hotchkiss, the two jumbo-style bungalows offer a Prairie Spin on the bungalow style.
Lynn and Jim Grogan, the owners of 639 S. Elmwood, have called one of these bungalows home for 26 years. With an empty nest, the two are ready to downsize and pass their piece of history on to another family. The Cavalcade of Pride Award-winning home offers a unique spin on bungalow style.
The history
The home was designed in 1920 by Roy J. Hotchkiss, who moved to Oak Park from Indiana as a child. With only a high-school education, he became a chief designer for noted Oak Park architect E.E. Roberts before establishing his own architectural practice in 1919. Hotchkiss designed many homes throughout Oak Park and also is credited with the design of the Medical Arts Building on Lake Street.
The first owner of the home was Owen H. Jones. Born in Wales, Jones immigrated to the United States in 1888 and settled in Chicago in 1893. He founded the Western Slate Company soon thereafter and provided the slate roofs and blackboards for the University of Chicago. His profession is evidenced in his home, which still sports a slate roof, slate walkway and slate accents in many rooms.
The large bungalow next door is credited to E.E. Roberts, but Jim Grogan states that Hotchkiss designed it as well for a candy maker who sold his wares in the building that currently houses Trattoria 225 on Harrison Street.
Old school style
Gloor Realty agent Laura Talaske is listing the home for the Grogans for $679,000 and calls the house something special.
“It’s really a jumbo, oversized bungalow. People tend to think of bungalows as the typical Chicago style with three bedrooms and two baths, but this is so much more than that. This is an extra-wide house built on an extra-wide lot.”
She notes that the historic touches and surrounding neighborhood contribute a lot to the total package. “It’s perfect Prairie-style with its wide porch, overhanging eaves and wide, open rooms. Its central location in the heart of the Gunderson Historic District means you can walk to school, and you’re surrounded by historic homes.”
The house is full of original details, which the Grogans have carefully maintained. On the first floor, the quarter-sawn oak floor and trim accent the original casement windows and beamed ceiling in the living room. A first-floor fireplace sports a seamless mantle of black slate.
In the sun room off the kitchen, the original terrazzo floor is heated nicely from the boiler room that lies beneath it in the basement. Lynn noted that the patterned floor was a big hit when her kids were young. “You could drop anything on this floor and it wouldn’t show. Who knows how many peas they tried to dispose of in here.”
Throughout the first floor, the original built-ins provide so much storage space, the Grogans haven’t been able to fill it all in 26 years. An original dining room buffet provides a service piece in the formal dining room. Built-in drawers in the hall and more built-in, floor-to-ceiling storage for linens outside the first-floor full bathroom add even more storage opportunities.
While the Grogans have been meticulous in maintaining such features as the mosaic tiled floor in the bathroom, they did eventually see the need to make over the 1950s-style kitchen.
“We both love to cook,” noted Jim, “so it was time to do something. We tried to replicate the slate throughout the house when we chose the countertops, and Oak Park carpenter Chris Mijal made amazing cabinets.”
Mijal was careful to match the original built-in drawers when crafting drawers in the kitchen out of oak. While the look is old-school, Lynn pointed out decidedly modern touches like the double ovens, which made it much easier for them to host Thanksgiving dinners.
Upstairs, downstairs
Like many bungalows, the home has two first-floor bedrooms, currently used by the Grogans as a den and an office, but the second floor doesn’t skimp on space. Although the home is designed to look like a typical bungalow from outside, the interior has a full second story with three bedrooms, a studio space and a full bathroom.
The spacious bedrooms include ample closets built into the eaves of the home. A back sleeping porch was enclosed to create a room that can serve as a studio or office, and the Grogans fully restored the windows according to the original plans for the home. As only the fourth or fifth family to own the house, the Grogans were lucky enough to inherit the original blueprints and masonry plans.
The basement level offers another entire level of living space. Using engineering that wasn’t typically seen in homes of the era, the basement was originally planned as a billiards room and had a system in place to keep the floors dry. The original maple floors are still in great shape, and steel beams allow for ceiling heights not typically found in the basement of an older home.
Talaske thinks the basement is to die for, rivaled by the front porch which makes a wonderful spot to sit and watch the neighborhood and passersby. Jim Grogan said the porch serves as their warm-weather living room in the spring, summer and fall.
But the nest is empty and it’s time to pass the house on to the next family, whom they hope will love it as much as they have.