Garden Homes Historic District

Garden Homes is a planned neighborhood of about 40 acres in Chicago's Chatham area, built in 1919-20 on land acquired by merchant Benjamin J. Rosenthal. Architect Charles S. Frost designed two-story brick cottages and stucco duplexes on a shared five-room plan, with varied hipped and gabled rooflines that recall English village cottages. Homes sit 30 feet back from the street on lots measuring 30 by 162 feet, larger than Chicago's usual 25 by 125 feet, so residents could grow vegetables. The project responded to a postwar housing shortage and is described as the city's first large-scale subsidized housing effort, supported by philanthropists who believed home ownership would make better workers and citizens. Its layout and appearance drew on England's garden city movement, including Letchworth and the London garden suburbs. Many houses have since gained siding, enclosed porches or replacement windows, yet most keep their original rooflines. Of 152 buildings, 88 are counted as contributing, and the area remains residential.