Stephen Race House

“Both these houses are of large size, of the Italian villa style of architecture, and, as to material, of red brick. The cost of the Race mansion, with the very elaborate ground improvements now going forward, is about $20,000: that of the Brown mansion, about $15,000, the grounds being still comparatively unimproved.”

“Despite the disparity between what the Race brothers individually spent on their homes, both were men of means and built homes indicative of their stature. Both chose to build in the Italianate mode, then one of the most popular architectural styles.”

“Large eave brackets dominate the comice line of Italianate houses. On the Race House, these are overscaled, elaborately scrolled, and arranged in pairs. A line of evenly spaced small horizontal brackets called modillions, most common on Italianate Tuscan buildings, is recessed between the larger protruding brackets.”

“Never absentee landlords, the Race family was continuously instrumental in the development of Irving Park. The patriarch Charles T. Race, in fact, donated the three lots on which in 1872 the Dutch Reformed Church and the Society of Irving Park was first housed in a wooden Gothic building.”

“The Stephen A. Race House certainly fits Downing's definition of what is meant by a villa and certainly its first occupant met Downing's standard for a villa owner.”

“Originally sited on Irving Park Boulevard, a road that was once an Indian trail in early Illinois, the Stephen A. Race House is a brick Italianate structure with its architectural integrity still very much intact.”

“The Stephen A. Race House is a classic example of the Italianate style. Two-and-one-half stories high, composed of red brick contrasted with white stone and painted wood trim, it is derived from the villas of Tuscany in Northern Italy which are characterized by a symmetrical box shape capped by a flat roof.”