South Shore Bungalow Historic District

Chicago's South Shore Bungalow Historic District covers twenty block faces between East 75th and 78th Streets, about nine miles from the city center. Built between 1911 and 1930, it holds 229 Chicago bungalows, forty-one frame and stucco antecedent forms, and a few two-flats and larger houses. More than eighty architects and builders worked here, yet uniform setbacks, regular spacing and shared features such as low-pitched roofs, overhanging eaves, banded windows and limestone trim give the streets a cohesive look. Early stucco and frame bungalows gave way after about 1916 to brick, and later examples became more elaborate, especially on corner lots. Developers such as Charles Miller built dozens of homes on speculation. The district was listed for its role in promoting single-family homeownership and for its well-preserved bungalow architecture. Its residents included many immigrant families, mostly white-collar workers, and in the 1950s and 1960s it became a black middle-class community.