Washington Park Court District

“The uniformity of the construction within the district, establishing along Washington Park Court, makes it distinctive. Although the rowhouse and the varieties of its architectural expression here may not be unique in the community or even in the city as a whole, but the street is a unique enclave for its cohesiveness.”

“Development of the block occurred quickly as the majority of buildings were constructed by 1900. Grand Boulevard was a socially prominent area and Washington Park Court was no exception to the rule.”

“In the late teens, one of the houses on Washington Park Court was sold for use as a boarding house, and in the early twenties the first black families began to move onto the block.”

“The houses in the proposed district are rowhouses, and thus, except for the buildings at the ends of Washington Park Court, they present only one face to the street.”

“The 4900-block of Washington Park Court was laid out as part of the block bounded by Grand Boulevard, 49th Street, Vincennes Avenue, and 50th Street, subdivided in 1892 by the real estate firm of T.G. Dickinson & Co.”

“The rowhouses that came to be built along the block are mostly twenty-five feet in width, but the ten-foot setback was respected. Variety and uniformity are the keys to the unique feeling of Washington Park Court.”

“None of the other developers of multiple units on Washington Park Court lived on the street. Henry L. Newhouse (1874-1929) was a prominent Chicago architect whose practice centered on the South Side.”

“The flat front of 4912 Washington Park Court, constructed in 1895 as part of a group of four houses owned by M. G. Larned, is an elegant evocation of classical design with a second-floor oriel window of pressed metal featuring garlands over its three arched windows. 429 East 50th Street solidly terminates the court at its south end with a Romanesque front of ashlar limestone laid in alternating wide and narrow bands from the second floor to the top of its high gable.”

“The Washington Park Court District centers on Washington Park Court, a block containing fifty-one houses (there is one vacant lot at the north end of the block) on a street laid out in 1892 by the original owners and subdividers of the land.”

“Although the street was not developed in the same manner as, for example, Alta Vista Terrace on the North Side, by one developer using one architect to construct the entire street of forty houses in four years, a somewhat similar pattern occurred on Washington Park Court.”