It goes without saying that many of the homes in Oak Park are historic. Age alone places the majority of the town’s single-family homes squarely in an earlier era. The village has established three historic districts — Frank Lloyd Wright, Ridgeland-Oak Park, and Gunderson — in which many of the homes are deemed contributing resources to the historic nature of the area.
For those interested in a more specific and formal designation, there are additional ways to set apart the significance of your home. Seeking to have your home declared a local historic landmark is one way to not only recognize, but protect, a home.
The process
As with many aspects of homeownership in Oak Park, making the case that your home is a landmark requires a fair amount of paperwork and the approval of the village. The Historic Preservation Commission is the first stop for homeowners who think their home is worthy of landmark status.
Architect and Commission Chair Chris Payne said there are usually two motivating factors for homeowners.
“Some people pursue landmark designation because they’re very proud of their homes and because they think it’s a good thing for the community to show our abundance of historic homes. On the other side, you might have someone outside of the historic district who wants to take advantage of tax credits.”
The nomination form on the village website (http://www.oak-park.us/sites/default/files/forms/historic-landmark-nomination-form.pdf) states that in order for a property to be designated an Oak Park landmark, it must “be proven to possess historic significance and integrity.
“Historic integrity is the authenticity of a property’s historic identity, evidenced by the survival of physical characteristics that existed during the property’s period of significance. Historic integrity is the composite of seven qualities: location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association.
“Not only must a property resemble its historic appearance, but it must also retain physical materials, design features, and aspects of construction, dating from its period of significance. All seven qualities do not need to be present for eligibility as long as the overall sense of past time and place is present.”
Historic significance is determined by the presence of one or more of the following criteria: historical and/or cultural importance and architectural and/or engineering importance.
“Basically, you need to demonstrate the building has an architectural, cultural, economic or historic relationship to the development of Oak Park, Illinois or the United States,” Payne explained, “or that it is identified with a person who made a significant contribution to Oak Park, or there can be an architectural designation based on the architect or the unique characteristics of the home.”
Anyone can nominate a property — from homeowners to groups of preservation-minded citizens. Applications include written and photographic evidence of significance and integrity, along with a narrative statement of significance.
Once the commission receives a nomination, it first conducts a preliminary determination to see if the property will qualify under these guidelines. If the criteria are met, they then make a motion that the application can proceed and hold a public hearing, which is a finding-of-fact that the property actually meets all of the criteria for landmark designation. At this hearing, public comment in support of or against the landmark status is allowed. The commission’s recommendation for or against landmark status then goes to the village board, which makes the actual landmark designation and allows the home to be recognized with a plaque.
Payne said that during his three-year tenure on the Historic Preservation Commission, it has been typical to see one or two landmark applications a year. This past month, the commission approved landmark status for 209 Forest in the Frank Lloyd Wright Historic District.
209 Forest
Known as the James T. Hayden House, 209 Forest was built in 1893, and Anson Hemingway, grandfather to Ernest, was the realtor involved in the sale of the property. Built for the princely sum of $7,000, the Queen Anne-style home displays a unique combination of limestone, brick and cedar shingles on its exterior.
Holly Van Deursen and her husband, Craig Iseli, have lived in the home since 1998, and they nominated it for landmark status. Van Deursen noted that, after going through three significant renovations of the home, they wanted to celebrate the historic nature of their house.
“We’ve always loved old homes,” she said, “and when we bought this house, we were looking for something that was move-in ready. This house certainly wasn’t that, but it had such charm from the outside and, unlike other Victorians, it’s not choppy on the inside. It’s light and bright and has big rooms.”
The couple removed a flat-roofed, pre-fabricated addition on the back of the home and replaced it with a family room addition that mirrors the turret design on the front of the house. They also replaced a pre-fabricated garage with a custom garage.
The large amount of paperwork involved in preparing a report for the landmark nomination, she pointed out, was aided greatly by the fact that the home had been featured on the Wright Plus Housewalk in the past, which gave her access to top-notch research on the home’s architecture and history.
Van Deursen added that their home met the criteria for an Oak Park landmark, based on both the historic and architectural significance criteria. The first owner, James Hayden, was considered a significant part of the community as an executive with the Crane Company, which manufactured steam-powered engines and elevators in Chicago. The home is also significant architecturally, as it is the only major known work of architect William K. Johnston in Oak Park and because it differs architecturally from its neighbors in the variety of materials used, its asymmetrical massing and avoidance of flat wall surfaces.
Of granting the landmark application for the home, Payne noted, “When you see a property like that where it has so much of its original integrity, and it has a lot of detail that is very well maintained, it really speaks of a particular era. It really makes it easy.”