By Igor Studenkov | Bugle Staff
nweditor@buglenewspapers.com
@NilesILNews
The Park Ridge City Council unanimously approved a resolution granting landmark status to one of the city’s War Homes.
During World War II, the Douglas Aircraft Company plant at what is now O’Hare International Airport was busy building C-54 Skymaster transport planes for the U.S. Air Force. To house the people who worked there, the federal government built a number of “war homes” in Park Ridge. Many of those homes have survived to this day.
On June 3, Margaret Hall, the current owner of a war home at 122 N. Delphia Ave., applied for the city landmark designation. According to Fourth Ward Ald. Roger Shubert, this is the first time an owner of a war home tried to apply for the designation.
The application cleared the Park Ridge Historic Preservation Commission Nov. 4. The Park Ridge City Council unanimously approved it during the first reading Dec. 7, and it received final approval during the Dec. 21 meeting.
According to the application documents, when Douglas opened its plant, many workers commuted from Chicago, but thousands of workers who arrived out of state tried to settle somewhere closer. Park Ridge and other nearby suburbs soon ran out of available housing. Because metals and lumber were restricted for war product, there was no way to build new homes.
In October 1943, the federal government authorized the construction of 3,100 new worker homes. 126 of those homes were allowed to be built in Park Ridge. While architects had some leeway when it came to design, the houses had to meet material conservation directives and size limits set by the U.S. War Production Board.
Those rules were designed to ensure that materials critical for the war effort were used as little as possible and as efficiently as possible. Along other things, buildings couldn’t have metal windows or sub-flooring, nor could they use any copper. Lumber lengths had to be shorter, and builders were encouraged to use lumber and metal substitutes whenever possible. The War Production Board had to sign off on all designs before the construction could start.
The war home at 122 N. Delphia Ave. is a Georgian-style two-story townhouse built with common brick and a low-pitched pyramid-like roof. A small staircase led to a simple door on the west side of the front wall. The building is mostly plain, with some ornamentation along the front-facing corners and around the door. The roof has some detailing that, according to the application, may not have been part of the original design.
According to the January 2015 Park Ridge Spokesman newsletter, most of the War Homes in the city were built in a similar style.
The application indicated that the Delphia Avenue home was built in 1944. Its first resident was John Bonham, an aluminium fabricator and assistant foreman who moved from Broadview Heights, Ohio, with his wife, Eleanor. According to the Historic Preservation Commission meeting notes, Hall moved into the building in 1990 and has lived there ever since.
Shubert told the Bugle that, in 2014, the city tried to encourage war home owners to apply for historic landmark designation, and that it tried to spread the word through the city newsletter and website. With the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II approaching, the city wanted to recognize homes that played a part in the war effort.
The alderman said efforts didn’t generate the response the city hoped for. But in her application, Hall specifically cited the city newsletter to support her argument that her home was eligible for historic designation.