Elm Street Court

Elm Street Court is a group of eight single-story bungalows arranged around a landscaped courtyard in one of Urbana's oldest residential areas, a couple of blocks west of downtown. Four houses line each side of a courtyard roughly 30 by 200 feet. Built in the 1920s in the Spanish Colonial Revival style, they have stucco walls, parapeted facades, iron window grilles, header brick trim and some red tile pent roofs. Each has two bedrooms, a brick chimney and a basement, yet each differs in parapet shape and stucco finish. Craftsman-style muntin patterns appear in the original windows and doors. The courtyard, a concrete birdbath, an ornamental lamppost and a freestanding concrete entrance at the north end contribute to the district. The district was listed for architecture because it is an unusual Midwestern example of California-style courtyard housing, and because the houses keep their original character. The rear garages were demolished in 1999, but the homes are still lived in.