Tony Roeder of Oak Park has been working as a general contractor with his company Marion Street Services for more than 10 years and has 35 years of experience in the industry. He sees Oak Park as a unique fit for his skills.
As other western suburbs have seen a proliferation of tear-downs and questionable new designs, Roeder said that Oak Park, with its Historic Preservation Commission, is more likely to value its historic architecture.
Two of his recent projects exemplify the desire for homeowners to celebrate the historic while creating homes that are livable for modern families.
His recent restoration of 221 S. Scoville in Oak Park won an Historic Preservation award for 2023. Built in the late 1880’s, the Victorian home “had not been touched in many, many years,” according to Roeder.
The young couple who bought the house wanted something that was fun and livable and that brought back some of the original details of the home.
The first focus was on the exterior of the house. The home was covered with asphalt siding that Roeder posited was put on sometime shortly after World War II. Many of the Victorian details were damaged or missing. Roeder’s team replicated the original details, and matched the cedar that had been damaged by the asphalt siding application.
“We brought it back to what it was,” he said. The home also got a new paint job that highlights its woodwork.
The home’s third floor was originally finished back in the 1880’s, and Roeder said not much had changed since then. He gutted the areas to create a playroom and bedrooms, and along the way added central air conditioning to the home.
While the home’s kitchen had been remodeled 15 or 20 years ago, Roeder’s team updated the space with new tile and countertops.
Throughout the roughly 10-month process, his team worked to preserve what Roeder called the classic charms of the home like the coffered ceilings on the first floor.
At another project just down the street in the historic district on Fair Oaks Avenue, Roeder had a client whose home had its original, one-car garage. Likely meant to house a Model-T car, the stucco garage was not functional for modern needs.
Like the Scoville Avenue clients, these homeowners brought in architect Kim Smith, whom Roeder said is great at historic preservation projects. “She drove the design here,” he said.
With Smith’s design, Roeder’s team built a garage that is almost identical to the original garage, but larger, next to the original garage. They worked to implement garage doors that matched the original and made sure to get the stucco details right, too.
Through both projects, Roeder and his clients worked with the Historic Preservation Commission for approval and guidance.
“I’m a big fan of the Historic Preservation Commission,” he said. “Susie Trexler and Michael Bruce with the village are doing everything in their power to make sure things are going smoothly for our clients.”
While Roeder has heard of people locally who want to diminish or destroy some of the charm of their historic homes, he said the biggest hardship he’d come across with clients and historic preservation occurs when clients have a failed terra cotta or cement tile roof.
“The cost to replace those is four to five times as high. I can see the hardship here. I wish there was a better solution,” he said.
All-in-all, he said that his craftsmen are able to re-create original charm while making houses live better for their homeowners, and he credits the Historic Preservation Commission with keeping what he calls “abominations” out of Oak Park.
“You drive through some other communities,” he said, “and they’re putting up municipal buildings for homes.”
