Ouilmette North Historic District

Ouilmette North is a 46-block neighborhood in the northeastern part of the original Village of Wilmette, on Chicago's North Shore. It contains 1190 buildings, of which 911 are counted as contributing, plus a site made up of the streetlamps and brick street paving. Nearly all are private homes, with two churches. Most houses went up between 1900 and 1930, though a few date to the 1870s and some were built by 1945. Roughly one-third show Prairie School features, and architects such as William Drummond, John Van Bergen, George Maher and Dean & Dean designed houses here. Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, Italian Renaissance, French Eclectic and Craftsman homes add variety. What unites the area is a consistent scale of mostly 2-1/2 story houses, uniform 25-foot setbacks, mature trees, alley-accessed garages, brick-paved streets and original 1925 electric streetlamps. The land came from the Ouilmette Reservation and early subdivisions such as Gage's Addition, shaping the district's layout.