Introduction

Introduction The Oak Circle Historic District is a small grouping of fifteen early twentieth-century houses located in Wilmette, Illinois, a 128-year old suburb north of Chicago located on the Lake Michigan shore. This small grouping of houses is significant to Wilmette because of its exceptional degree of architectural unity. All of the homes were built primarily in the Craftsman style, with many also exhibiting detailing from the Prairie School of Architecture, both styles of which were born from the Arts and Crafts Movement of the early twentieth century.

Setting

Oak Circle Historic District is located in the southern half of Wilmette, two blocks west of Green Bay Road and two blocks north of the Evanston border. Its location is approximately one-quarter mile from the Village Hall and one mile from the Lake Michigan shore. Oak Circle is a curvilinear street approximately 400 feet in length bordered on the north by Wilmette Avenue and on the south by a service alley. The district contains fifteen homes and eleven outbuildings, all of which are detached garages. A great deal of the houses’ original integrity has survived the onslaught of time; thus, fourteen of the fifteen homes have been determined to make a historic and architectural contribution to the Village. 2 This integrity remains intact to the present time. The houses are built primarily of brick and wood and are set back approximately thirty-five feet on the west side of the street. On the east side, they are set back closer to twenty-five feet, as the lots are not as deep. Lots on the west side are between 40-50 feet wide; on the east side they are slightly wider on average. Lot sizes on Oak Circle average between 5000 and 6000 square feet. The homes are positioned on their lots so that the façade of each structure follows the curve of the street. Due to this curve, many of the lot sizes are irregular. This contrasts sharply to the surrounding neighborhood, where the pattern of streets is rectilinear and the lot sizes are very consistent. The curvature of the street adds considerable charm and status to the street, as Oak Circle is one of only three brick curvilinear streets in Wilmette’s residential areas built prior to World War I.

The street is paved with brick, and the sidewalks and curbs on each side are made of concrete. There are three streetlights located on the west side of the street. These recently replaced historic streetlights whose lighting technology was obsolete. The Village of Wilmette chose new lights that are exact reproductions of the originals, which dated to the late 1920s. A stop sign at the entrance to Wilmette Avenue assists traffic merging with this street. Six of the properties have driveways with entrances from Oak Circle. Five of these are located on the east side (322, 328, 332, 340, 344). Two of the six driveways are concrete (340 and 351); the rest are paved with asphalt. A combination of mature and young trees line the parkway on each side of the street and contribute to the street’s character. The younger trees are replacements for older trees ravaged in recent years by disease, including Dutch Elm.

History

In 1907, Joseph Woodruff’s Addition to Wilmette was platted to the Village with twenty lots (Appendix A). 3 Fourteen of these lots would eventually be improved with homes having Oak Circle addresses. The remaining lots faced Klein Street (later renamed Prairie Avenue). In 1908, water and sewer lines were installed. 4 Records at the Wilmette Historical Museum suggest that Oak Circle was paved in 1911. It is unclear when actual construction of the homes began, as building permits are not on file for many of the homes. The Wilmette Village Hall was struck by a tornado in March 1920, and many building permits were lost at that time. 5 There are permits available for 318, 322, 332, 340 344, 350, and 351, and all have post-tornado dates. All of these homes except one are located on the east side of Oak Circle. This would suggest that construction on the west side of the street began first, prior to 1920, which was substantiated by the oral history of long-time residents. Also, documents found at the Wilmette Historical Museum indicate that the lots were not yet improved by the date of April 16, 1917. Apparently, construction began sometime between that date and the tornado.

In 1920, A. W. Dickinson, a builder, resubdivided Woodruff’s Addition (Appendix B). 6 Dickinson made some changes to the original plat, including reconfiguring lot dimensions in order to add a lot on the northeast side of the Oak Circle and two additional lots on Klein Street. He also vacated the alley, which necessitated the creation of driveways for those houses on the east side of Oak Circle. Dickinson acquired permits between 1920 and 1924 to build the seven homes on the east side of the street. The exceptional degree of architectural unity with the houses on the other side suggests that he was involved with the construction of those homes, too. There are clues, such as art-glass windows on one 1920 east-side house (318) that shares the same design pattern with a home lacking a permit on the west side (323). Another clue is the identical decorative curve on the ends of the projecting beam posts on 322, a known Dickinson-built house, as those of 339, a house that lacks permit records. Also, nine of the homes, including some of those verified as Dickinson’s, contain similar projecting box-shaped, bay-like windows on the first floor. Another unifying feature is the use of built-in flower box supports on the majority of the houses. Finally, many of the building materials used on the exteriors of the east side are identically found on the exteriors of the west side, including types and colors of brick, the use of wood shingles under the roof gables, and the extensive use of art glass windows. It is not known whether Dickinson worked with an architect or used home plans that were widely available at the time.

House Styles & Types

Twelve of the fifteen houses on Oak Circle are bungalows, the house type most closely associated with the Arts and Crafts Movement in America. 7, 8 The bungalows as well as the remaining homes showcase a variety of features found in Craftsman architecture, as well as the distinctive rhythmic bands of windows with geometric patterns of small-pane glazing associated with the Prairie style.(9) The windows have zinc cames, and many located on the first floors, along with some on the second floors, contain colored art glass. The average house on the street originally contained over 40 such windows. Craftsman features exhibited in many of the houses include low-pitched gabled roofs with wide, overhanging eaves and exposed rafter tails; decorative beams and brackets added underneath gables, and the use of a combination of indigenous materials, including brick, wood and stone. (10) Even the three houses without the low flat roofs and overhanging eaves exhibit the other characteristics.

The twelve bungalows exhibit a variety of floor plans. Some are one story; some one-and-a-half, but no two are exactly alike. True to the Arts and Crafts ideal of being close to nature, the bungalows primarily have a horizontal emphasis (whether front-to-back or side-to-side) and seem firmly rooted to the ground from which they rise. (11)

Three of the bungalows are of a unique variety known as “airplane” bungalows. These particular examples are so-called because of the way the upper half-story sits, in a “cockpit” fashion, above the “wings” of the horizontal lower story. (12) (13) This type of bungalow design relates to America’s fascination with air travel at the beginning of the twentieth century, and was more commonly found in California bungalows than those located in the suburbs of Chicago. (14),(15)

The three remaining houses have a full second story (332, 344, and 350), and although they all exhibit Craftsman influence and most have Prairie features, none of the houses are bungalow types. It is interesting to note that these houses were constructed last of all the houses on Oak Circle, along with the bungalow at 340, and they all were built between 1922 and 1924. By this time the Arts and Crafts Movement had all but ended and historical revival movements were having a greater influence on residential architecture. (16) This is apparent in the deviations in the types and styles of these homes. Those at 332 and 344 both feature steeply pitched roofs that suggest Tudor styling, while the shape of the house at 350 with its full second story (no dormers) suggests a Colonial Revival influence. (17) Over time the subsequent owners at 350 have continued in this direction with their choice of alterations to the original exterior, including painting the brick white.

The bungalow at 340, interestingly, also exhibits some Colonial Revival and even Italian Renaissance influence, probably due to its later construction in 1923. It is most definitely a bungalow, with a horizontal emphasis and one-and-one-half stories. It also contains some of Oak Circle’s most brilliant art-glass patterns in its bands of many windows. However, its accentuated front door with entry porch is a Colonial Revival detail. (18). Italian Renaissance influence is apparent in the arch above the doorway and the curvaceous shape of the decorative brackets found under the roof gables. These brackets contrast sharply to the simpler styles found on the more straightforward Craftsman houses on the street. Further study of the home’s history reveals two other Italian Renaissance details: the original window in the dormer was arched, repeating the arch over the doorway below. (19). Also, early Sanborn insurance maps of the area make note that the roof was originally covered with ceramic tile, another Italian Renaissance touch. (20).

The eleven detached garages are an eclectic mix of contributing and noncontributing buildings. Oak Circle was developed when cars were beginning to become an important method of transportation. According to permit records at the Wilmette Village Hall, many of the garages were built within the first decade following the construction of the houses (322, 323, 335, 347). Some of the original garages have been replaced with modern ones (318, 327, 331). Two of the houses without garages have no record of ever having them (340, 351). Five other houses have garages that were apparently built at the same time as the houses (328, 332, 339, 343, and 344) and some of those have architectural detailing similar to that found on the houses (328, 332, 344). One of the contributing outbuildings is a shared garage that straddles the property line between two properties (339 and 343).

Individual House Descriptions

Following is a short description of each of the houses found within the historic district, as well as information concerning associated outbuildings, if any. The address and date of construction (in parenthesis) is given followed by the house type and style, number of stories, materials used, and features. Contributing status is listed at the end, also in parenthesis. 21 A separate notation about outbuildings, if applicable, completes each description.

318 Oak Circle (c. 1920) is a Craftsman-style “airplane” bungalow with Prairie-style influence, 1 1/2 stories, and a concrete foundation. The structure features brick veneer on lower story with horizontal wood siding on side porch, upper story, and underneath the roof gables on both stories. The lower story roof is side-gabled; the upper story is front-gabled, and the roof is covered with asphalt shingles. The eaves on upper and lower stories are exposed and roof rafter tails are visible. On the north end of the front elevation, a concrete walkway leads to an open recessed porch, which has a brick support column. The porch leads to the entry, which has a paneled wood door with two rectangular lights at the top. Around the first story, there is a wide decorative band of wood separating the wood siding under the gables from the brick below. The windows on the first story of the front elevation consist of a wood center window with twelve divided lights flanked on each side by two wood vertical casement windows, each with three lights. Historic photos from the Wilmette Historical Museum show that this arrangement replaced a band of seven wood, vertical, casement, art-glass windows with geometric designs and some colored art glass. Under these windows there are brick corbel-like brackets designed to hold flower boxes. The upper-story windows on the front elevation consist of two sets of three wood, casement-style windows with the original zinc cames and decorative geometric pattern, which matches what was originally on the lower story. These windows are connected with decorative wood banding at the top. On the south elevation is a side porch with wood-framed screens and next to it, a protruding box-like band of art-glass windows with its own roof visor and exposed rafter tails. There is a single art-glass window on the upper story of this elevation. A broad, rectangular brick Prairie-style chimney with a concrete cap sits on the south side of the first-story roof. There are additional bands of art-glass windows sharing the same design on both the upper and lower stories of the north elevation (Contributing).

Outbuilding: Modern, two-car, hipped-roof garage (Noncontributing).

322 Oak Circle (c. 1920) is a Craftsman-style “airplane” bungalow with Prairie influence, featuring 1 1/2 stories, and a concrete foundation. There is brick veneer on first story with some horizontal wood siding on the porch. The house also has wood shingles in two complementary patterns: one on the body of the second story, another banded style under the roof gables of both the first and upper stories. The lower story is cross-gabled with a large front-gabled portion; the upper half-story is side-gabled. The roof is covered with asphalt shingles. Both the front and side gables of the first story have three decorative beams protruding from them. The upper story has triangular knee-brace brackets in the gable ends. The eaves are exposed and the rafter tails visible. There is a wide band of wood separating the brick from the wood shingles under the roof gables. This band continues around the entire first story. The front elevation has a concrete walkway leading to a partial-width recessed front porch with a brick support column capped with concrete. The steps, leading up to the porch, are flanked by brick ledges and are also capped with concrete. The house contains most, if not all, of its original, wood-framed, casement-style, zinc-camed, decorative art-glass windows. The geometric pattern of the windows is consistent throughout; however, those on the first floor of the front and south elevations contain some green and white colored glass. The front elevation contains two bands of four such windows. Underneath these windows are decorative brick brackets designed to support flower boxes. The upper story contains a band of four art-glass windows on the front elevation. The wood trim around these windows has a decorative treatment consisting of a top horizontal piece that extends slightly on each side; the sides are then slightly tapered with the widest point meeting the sill. The rest of the windows on the upper story have the same trim. There are two basement windows on the front elevation, and both have a decorative brick arched pattern over the top. There is a broad, rectangular Prairie-style chimney on the south end of the house (Significant – This house was included in the Illinois Historic Structures Survey 22 ).

Outbuilding: (c. 1924) Front-gabled, two-car garage with asphalt-shingled roof and original wood covered with vinyl siding; garage door opens overhead. The north and south elevations contain their original windows, which consist of one rectangular window with four vertical divided lights on each elevation (Contributing).

323 Oak Circle (c. 1919) is a Craftsman-style bungalow with Prairie-style window detailing, one story, and a concrete foundation. The roof is cross-gabled with a large front-gabled portion and is covered with asphalt shingles. The roof eaves are exposed with visible rafter tails. There are two protruding beams at the roof gable ends. The exterior is finished with primarily brick veneer with some horizontal wood siding and wood shingles under the roof gables. There is a decorative band of horizontal wood trim around the exterior, separating the area under the roof gables from the remaining structure. On the front elevation, a flagstone walkway leads to brick steps with flagstone treads. The stairway is flanked on each side by a low, brick, multi-level wall capped with concrete. The steps lead to a wood screen door flanked by two sidelights. The screen door provides entry to the enclosed recessed front porch. On the south elevation, the porch is enclosed with vertical, casement-style windows containing six divided lights. To the north of the screen-door entry is a single, vertical, casement, wood-framed, art-glass window with zinc cames and a geometric design, including some yellowish green colored glass. North of this single window follows a band of six such windows, also with colored glass. Underneath these windows are decorative triangular-shapedbrick brackets for holding flower boxes. Just to the north of these windows is another enclosed porch with divided-light casements consisting of six panes. On the north elevation another band of art-glass windows protrudes in a box-like fashion with a roof visor overhead and exposed rafter tails. This home contains an abundance of decorative brickwork; there is a contrasting brick trim around the windows and a decorative pattern in the brick underneath the front windows. On the roof, there is a rectangular brick chimney capped with concrete (Contributing).

Outbuilding: (c.1923) stucco, asphalt-shingled, hipped-roof, one-car garage with an overhead garage door. The garage contains an original window on the north elevation consisting of four divided lights. The garage door is overhead opening, but otherwise the structure appears to have suffered no other alterations (Contributing).

327 Oak Circle (c. 1919) is a Craftsman-style bungalow with Prairie-style window detailing, 1 1/2 stories, and a concrete foundation. The house has a cross-gabled roof with front-gable dormers in the front and back and a front-gable wing. The roof is finished with asphalt shingles. The body of the exterior is brick veneer with wood shingles on the back half of the first story, under the roof gables, and on the dormers. A side horizontal band of decorative wood trim separates the body of the structure from the area underneath the gables. The eaves are exposed, with wood soffits and visible rafter tails. The dormer and wing on the front elevation have a detail that is uniquely Craftsman: a wide length of horizontal wood in a mortise and tenon fashion intersects the decorative knee-brace brackets on both. The tenon extends through the knee brace on each side. Making a focal point of the joinery in this way was one of the many techniques used during the Arts and Crafts Movement to focus attention on construction detailing as a decorative element. As with furniture designed during this time, it would seem that Arts and Crafts homes emphasized construction detailing over embellishments considered frivolous or extraneous, even if that detailing served no real structural purpose and was merely decorative, as in this example. 23 24 There are also six knee-brace brackets on each side of the main roof gable; these do not have the mortise and tenon detailing. The windows of this house are vertical, wood-framed, casement-style with geometric art-glass designs; some of the first-floor windows contain cream-colored bands of art glass around the edges. The first-story wing features and band of four windows on the front elevation and a band of three on each side. There are three vertical rectangular pieces of wood underneath the front-wing first story windows. Historical pictures from obtained at the Wilmette Historical Museum suggest that they are what remains from knee-brace style brackets designed to hold flower boxes. There is a concrete walk on the front elevation leading up to steps and a recessed front porch with a wood screen door. The porch is enclosed with windows that have three vertical divided lights in the top third with two underneath. To the north of this porch, but before the gable wing, is a band of three art-glass windows that form a box-like protrusion with a small roof visor overhead and visible rafter tails. There is a brick chimney with battered sides on the north elevation that extends through the main roof gable. There are two other box-like bay windows with the same roof visor treatment on the upper story of the north elevation and the lower story of the south elevation. There is also an entrance on the north elevation with its own small roof gable overhead. The basement windows share the same decorative brick detailing found at 322 Oak Circle.

Outbuilding: modern, hip-roofed, two-car garage (Noncontributing).

328 Oak Circle (c. 1920) is a Craftsman- style “airplane” bungalow with Prairie influence, 1 1/2 stories, and a concrete foundation. The roof is cross-gabled with a front-gable porch wing and front-gable “cockpit” upper story. The exterior body is brick veneer with horizontal wood siding on the upper story and wood shingles under the roof gables. The roofline is somewhat flared, with prow-like eaves at the top of the gables. There is a wide horizontal wood band separating the main body of the structure from the area under the gables on the first story. There are decorative beams protruding from each gable end; eaves are exposed with wood soffits and visible rafter tails. The front gable wing has decorative half-timbering in the area under the gable. Windows on the first story are bands of vertical wood casements except for the porch, where the original wood screens have been replaced with aluminum, louver-style windows. The porch windows have concrete sills. The upper-story windows have a decorative trim like those at 322; the horizontal top trim extends just beyond each side, and the sides are slightly tapered with the widest point at the sill. On the upper-story front elevation there is a band of four such windows flanked on each side by a single smaller window of the same type. Historical pictures found at the Wilmette Historical Museum are unable to confirm that the windows originally contained art glass, but evidence of its use in the other houses suggest it was likely used here as well. There is a broad brick chimney with decorative concrete accents at the point where it meets the horizontal wood banding on the north elevation. On the south end of the front elevation and continuing around the corner to the south elevation is a band of windows when protrude in a box-like fashion. The window protrusion is L-shaped, since it continues around a corner, a Prairie-influenced detail. 25 It has its own roof visor with exposed rafter tails. As with the other homes on Oak Circle that share this detailing, the protrusion here helps to project the interior space to the exterior, allowing the inhabitants to be closer to the outdoors. Many architects that were influenced by the Arts and Crafts Movement designed such features to promote the ideal of living in harmony with nature and bringing the outdoors into the home whenever possible 26 (Contributing).

Outbuilding: (c. 1920) two-car, front-gabled garage has the same horizontal wood siding on body and same wood shingles under the roof gable as the main structure. Decorative beams protrude from the front gable ends. The garage has and overhead door, but the rest of the structure appears original (Contributing).

331 Oak Circle (c. 1919) is a Craftsman-style bungalow with Prairie detailing. It is one story with a concrete foundation. This home has the simplest roof of all the Oak Circle homes. It is low-pitched, side-gabled and covered with asphalt shingles. The eaves are exposed with wood soffits. The rafter tails are exposed on the front elevation. The structure has a primarily brick body with wood shingles under the roof gables. A wide band of decorative, horizontal wood trim separates the two areas. On the front elevation, a brick walkway leads to concrete steps and the recessed front porch, which is supported by a brick column. Like the other homes on the street with such a column, this one has a concrete cap. The front door is wood paneled, featuring three vertical rectangular lights at the top and covered with a wood storm door. North of the recessed porch are two bands of four vertical wood casement windows that are composed of a geometric art-glass design using green and white colored glass. There is a decorative brick sill under the windows and brick brackets designed to support flower boxes. There are two basement windows underneath with decorative brick arches. On the north elevation is a broad rectangular chimney, which slopes with a decorative brick curve beneath the roof gable and extends to the ground with an even greater width (Contributing).

Outbuilding: (c. 1953) 1 1/2-car garage with a hipped roof and overhead garage door (Noncontributing).

332 Oak Circle (c. 1922) is a two-story eclectic home with primarily Craftsman and Prairie detailing. This home has a steeply pitched roof that suggests a Tudor influence. There are some Colonial Revival and Swiss Chalet features as well. The foundation is concrete. The body of the first story is brick; the second story is covered with horizontal wood siding in a banded pattern. The roof is side-gabled and covered with asphalt shingles; there are two 3/4-width shed dormers at the front and back. There are three decorative, triangular, knee-brace brackets in the gable ends; the soffits are wood and rafter tails exposed, although modern gutters hamper visibility. The front brick walkway leads to flagstone steps and a portico supported with two round Colonial Revival columns in the plain Doric style. On top of these columns are beam extensions that appear to support the small, front-gabled roof. The underside of this gable is arched and repeated in an arched green art-glass window above the front door. The door has two glass lights at the top with four panels in two-over- two fashion underneath. The door is covered with a wood storm door. On each side of the front door are vertical bands of wood, casement-style windows with zinc cames and a geometric art-glass design. Like many of the other homes, these first-floor windows contain colored art glass in some of the panes; here the featured color is a greenish gold. There is a band of three such windows on the north side of the door and four on the south. The windowsills on the first floor are brick. Under these windows are decorative brick brackets for holding flower boxes. The second-story dormer on the front elevation also contains some art glass; it appears that some of these windows have been replaced with plain glass. There are two bands of three windows flanking a center pair of thinner windows that are directly over the portico below. The two bands of windows each have wood shutters on each end that contain a diamond-shaped cutout near the top. At the south end of the front elevation the face of the building is slightly recessed, but the bands of windows continue;three with colored art glass are located on the bottom and two smaller windows with plain glass on the second story. The basement windows on each elevation have a decorative brick arch at the top (Contributing).

Outbuilding: (c. 1922) two-car garage with front-gabled roof and exposed rafter tails. Bottom half of structure is built with brick veneer matching that on the house. The upper half is sided with the same horizontal wood siding found on the house. There is a decorative band of wood around the structure separating the main body from the area under the roof gables, which is covered with wood shingles. The garage door has been replaced with an overhead-opening type (Contributing).

335 Oak Circle (c. 1919) is a Craftsman-style bungalow with Prairie detailing. It is one story and features a cross-gabled roof with prominent front gable. The roof is covered with asphalt shingles. The body of the structure is brick with banded wood shingles under the roof gables and at the rear. A wide banding of horizontal wood trim separates the wood shingles under the gables from the brick below. Decorative beam extensions protrude through the gables; eaves are exposed; soffits are wood and rafter tails are visible. The front elevation features a large brick chimney with battered sides and a concrete cap. This chimney is flanked on each side by a protruding box-like band of vertical, casement-style windows. Each of these bay windows consists of three windows with zinc cames and a decorative geometric pattern, featuring white and blue art glass. The windows are covered with roof visors that feature exposed rafter tails. Under each set of windows is a decorative brick pattern consisting of a rectangle with a diamond in the center. A concrete walkway leads to the recessed porch on the north side of the front elevation. The porch is supported by a large brick column, which is capped with concrete. The front door has two small rectangular panels at the top and four vertical two-over-two panels beneath. The entry door is covered with a wood storm door. The north elevation features another box-like bay window with five art-glass windows and the same roof visor treatment as on the front. This home contains nearly all of its original art-glass windows, which total approximately 40 (Contributing).

Outbuilding: (c. 1921) one-car brick garage with hipped roof covered with asphalt shingles. Garage features one window on the east elevation and two windows on the north, which are rectangular with three vertical, divided lights. The north windows appear to be original. The garage opens with an overhead door. The entry door on the north elevation appears to be original with five stacked rectangular panels (Contributing).

339 Oak Circle (c. 1919) is a Craftsman-style bungalow with Prairie-style window detailing. It features one story and a concrete foundation. The roof is cross-gabled with a prominent front-gabled wing. The roof is covered with asphalt shingles; eaves are exposed and soffits are wood with visible rafter tails. The body of the structure is primarily brick veneer with wood shingles under the roof gables and on the rear elevation. There are decorative beams protruding from the gable ends, and they share the same decorative curved ends as those at 322 Oak Circle. There is a decorativeband of wood around the entire structure, separating the main body from the areas under the gables. The brick mortar joints are a very rough texture and exhibit the use of a large-sized aggregate. This is the only house on Oak Circle with this type of mortar joints, which are flush rather than concave or raked. The front-gabled wing features a band of five, vertical, wood-framed, casement-style, art-glass windows. The windows are the same as those at 327, with off-white colored glass around the perimeter of each. Underneath these windows are three decorative wood beam extensions in the same style as in the gables; however, here they are designed to hold flower boxes. The north and south elevations of the wing each feature a band of three art-glass windows. The front walkway is brick and located south of the wing. It leads to a recessed porch with a pillar composed of brick on the bottom half, capped with concrete, and rounded stones (river rock) on the top half, also capped with concrete. The river-rock portion of the pillar has battered sides. The entry door is two-paneled with eight lights at the top in four-over-four fashion. It is covered with a wood storm door. To the north of the wing, but still on the front elevation, is a box-like protrusion of a band of three windows with its own roof visor and exposed rafter tails. This house has approximately 40 original art-glass windows, including another box-like bay window with four panels of art glass on the south elevation with the same roof treatment mentioned before. There is also a smaller art-glass window on the north elevation with a differing design from the rest, featuring green and pink colored glass. The chimney is on the north elevation and is constructed of river rock and capped with concrete. There are two ceramic chimney pots on the top. The chimney has battered sides extending to the ground (Contributing).

Outbuilding: (c. 1920) Two-car garage that straddles the property line between 339 and 343. The front-gabled roof is covered with asphalt shingles. The eaves are exposed and rafter tails visible. The structure contains four original windows: two on the east (rear) side and one each on the north and south sides. The windows are rectangular with four vertical divided lights. The area under the rear window at 343 has a shed-roofed projection with asphalt shingles. The bottom of the garage is clad with horizontal wood siding, and the top has decorative vertical bands of wood that suggest half-timbering. This feature is also found under the front roof gable. There is a wood ledge about two inches deep, which protrudes to separate the upper section from the lower. A wide band of horizontal wood separates the area under the front roof gable from the two, one-car garage doors underneath. A wall separates the two sides of the building, which is located on the property line (Contributing).

340 Oak Circle (c. 1923) is a bungalow with primarily Craftsman and Prairie detailing, along with some Colonial Revival and Italian Renaissance influence. The structure is 1- 1/2 stories with a concrete foundation. The roof is side-gabled with a front-gabled dormer and is covered with asphalt shingles. Historic Sanborn insurance maps refer to a tile roof at a previous time. The body of the house is brick with horizontal aluminum siding in the area under the roof gables and on the dormer. Looking at historic photos available at the Wilmette Historical Museum, it is difficult to determine what is underneath this siding. Soffits on the second-story dormer have been partially boxed with aluminum; however, the original decorative brackets at the gable ends remain and are very curvaceous in an Italianate fashion. These stand in sharp contrast to the simpler, linear brackets on the other homes. The eaves on both floors are partially exposed, and the rafter tails have a curved design that echoes the curve of the decorative brackets above. A short concrete walk leads to steps flanked on each side by a low brick wall capped with concrete. On top of each sits a concrete Prairie-style urn. The front door is wood with an art-glass light at the top. This door is covered by a metal storm door with very ornate grillwork. The front door is framed with a decorative concrete trim consisting of a horizontal band at the top that extends beyond the width of the door on both sides. The trim on each side of the door is tapered (battered) and extends to the floor. This treatment is identical to the wood trim around the upper-story windows at 322 and 328 Oak Circle. The front door is accentuated with a front-gable roof projection supported with large fluted decorative brackets. Found at the bottom of each bracket is a wood pendant design consisting of five triangles, an Arts and Crafts touch. Under the front gable porch roof is a prominent arch, which was originally repeated in the front-gable dormer window. The arched window has been replaced by two, rectangular, awning-style windows. The rest of the home’s windows on the front elevation, however, are original. They consist of bands of wood-framed casements with geometric art glass and zinc cames. The design matches that found in the entry door. There is a band of five windows on the north side of the entry and a band of nine on the south side. The sills are concrete. There is a decorative rectangular brick pattern with concrete accents underneath the bands of windows. There is a large, broad, rectangular, brick chimney capped with concrete on the south elevation; another square brick chimney rises from the rear (Contributing).

343 Oak Circle (c. 1919; upper-story addition, 1935) is a Craftsman-style bungalow with 1-1/2 stories and a concrete foundation. The body is brick with banded wood shingles on the upper story and under the roof gables. The roof is cross-gabled with a front-gabled wing and is covered with asphalt shingles. Decorative beams protrude from gable ends. Eaves are exposed with wood soffits and visible rafter tails. There is a wide horizontal band of wood that separates the upper story and the area under the roof gables from the lower story. A concrete walk leads to concrete steps flanked by a wrought-iron railing. The front door is flush with a half-light at the top and leads into an enclosed porch. The windows are mostly wood. On the front elevation, north of the door, two casements flank a center, fixed, “picture” window. This same window arrangement is found on the front-gable wing. In each case, the center window probably replaced two casement windows, which is the original window arrangement of the other houses on the street. It is very likely that the casement windows originally contained art glass. On the south side of the door, the porch contains two-panel, sliding windows in aluminum frames. On the west end of the south elevation is a box-like protrusion of windows like those found on eight other Oak Circle homes. These, however, no longer contain art glass. The windows on the front elevation of the upper story addition are rectangular awning-style. On the north elevation there is a broad, rectangular, brick chimney with concrete accents about halfway between the roof and the foundation. The chimney is capped with concrete (Contributing).

Outbuilding: See 339 Oak Circle.

344 Oak Circle (c. 1923) is a two-story eclectic home with primarily Craftsman and Prairie detailing. Like the home at 332, its steeply pitched roof also suggests a Tudor influence. The lower half is clad with brick veneer, and there are wood shingles on the second story. The two levels are separated visually by a decorative horizontal band of wood. The roof is front-gabled with decorative triangular knee-brace brackets at the gable ends. The eaves have been enclosed with aluminum soffits. There is a full-width shed-type dormer on each side of the roof, and the one located on the south elevation is topped with an additional attic-level shed dormer. The roof is covered with asphalt shingles. There is a concrete walkway leading to an enclosed, side-entry porch on the north side of the structure. The porch has a hipped roof and a metal storm door. The porch is enclosed with wood windows, which are vertical, casement-style with a square light at the top and a rectangular one below. The windows on the main body of the structure are wood, casement-style with decorative art-glass panes and zinc cames. The art glass has a geometric design, and some of the panes are amber and green. Unlike most of the other Oak Circle houses, the second-floor windows also feature colored art glass. The front elevation has a band of five windows centered on the lower level; under the roof gable is a pair of the same windows toward the north and a band of three toward the south. Above these windows at the peak of the gable is an arched window that suggests a Colonial Revival influence. There are additional art-glass windows on both the full-width shed dormers and attic dormer. There are built-in supports for flower boxes under the front elevation windows and also under the porch windows. A small square chimney capped with concrete rises from the attic roof dormer (Contributing).

Outbuilding: (c. 1923) one-car garage with front-gabled roof covered with asphalt shingles. The body is covered with horizontal vinyl siding over the original wood. There are two original windows on the north and south elevations that are rectangular with three-over-two divided lights. The original garage door has been replaced with an overhead-opening door (Contributing).

347 Oak Circle (c. 1919) is a Craftsman-style bungalow with Prairie window detailing. The roof is cross-gabled, with a large front-gabled wing on the front elevation. The roof is covered with asphalt shingles. The body of the structure is covered with brick veneer with some horizontal wood siding at the rear. There are banded would shingles in the areas under the roof gables, and a wide band of horizontal wood trim extending around the structure to separate those areas from the brick body. There are decorative beam posts extending from the roof gable ends. The eaves have been enclosed with aluminum soffits. A brick walkway leads to a recessed front porch of the south side of the front elevation. This porch is supported with a rectangular brick column capped with concrete. On top of the concrete cap is another beam-post extension. It extends from the wall on the south side of the front door forward to just beyond the brick column, finishing at the same point as the others. In other words, it serves the same decorative purpose as the other beam-post extensions, but it is visible the entire recessed length of the porch. The front-entry door has two vertical panels with eight rectangular lights in four-over-four fashion at the top. Centered on the front-gabled wing is a band of nine vertical casement windows with wood frames. The windows are composed of art glass with zinc cames and a geometric design with amber and green colors around the perimeter. The glass colors are different, but the design of the windows is the same as at 327 and 339. On the porch (south) side of the front wing is another band of three such windows; on the north side, there are two such windows and a large chimney made of river rock on the lower portion and brick above the roof. The chimney is capped with concrete. This house also has a protruding box-like band of four art-glass windows on its south elevation (Contributing).

Outbuilding: (c. 1927) one-car garage with front-gable roof and decorative brackets at the gable peaks. There is a horizontal band of wood separating the area under the gable from the body below. The garage has been sided with vertical wood panels and has an overhead garage door. The south (rear) elevation has two original rectangular windows with three-over-two divided lights (Contributing).

350 Oak Circle (c. 1924) is a two-story eclectic home with primarily Craftsman influence and some Colonial Revival detailing. The building has a concrete foundation. The structure has brick veneer on both levels and horizontal wood siding on the entry porch. The roof is front-gabled and covered with asphalt shingles. There are decorative, triangular, knee-brace brackets at the gable ends. The eaves are exposed with wood soffits and visible rafter tails. On the southwest elevation, a concrete walkway leads to concrete steps with a wrought iron rail. These steps ascend to a one-story partially enclosed entry porch with a shed roof and exposed rafter tails. A Colonial Revival column in the unadorned Doric style supports the roof portion overhanging the front door. The entry door is wood, with five rectangular panels. The windows are replacements; double-hung eight-over-one type with vinyl frames. A large brick chimney with battered sides dominates the front elevation. On the lower level there is one pair of windows on each side of the chimney. On the second story there is one window on each side of the chimney, and a pair of black aluminum shutters flanks each. Underneath the second-story windows are brick corbel-like brackets for holding window boxes. Window-box brackets are found under the windows on the second story of the side elevations as well. On each side of the chimney under the roof gable peak on the front elevation there are two quarter-round windows, which contain green art glass. Historic photos at the Wilmette Historical Museum show that the structure’s entry was originally within an enclosed porch, which was removed at some point. A rectangular brick column adjacent to the west corner supported the porch. The original windows were vertical wood casements: two bands of three on the lower story front elevation and a pair above each set of window-box brackets on the second story. It is likely that they contained art glass panels. Originally, there were no shutters. In addition, the brick veneer was originally a sandy color and not painted as currently found. At the rear of the structure is an addition of a two-car attached garage that opens to Prairie Street (Contributing).

351 Oak Circle (c. 1921) is a Craftsman-style, 1-1/2 story bungalow with a concrete foundation. The roof is front-gabled with a shed roof over the enclosed porch on the front elevation and a cross gable at the entry and over the porch on the north elevation. This house has been substantially altered from its original state. It was the only house on Oak circle not to receive a Contributing rating when it was surveyed in 1993. 27 A historic photo from the Wilmette Historical Museum (Appendix C) allows a comparison of its appearance in 1953, which appears to be unaltered, with that of today. Originally, the home was stucco, but has been covered with wood board-and-batten siding. Originally the roof gables had decorative beam extensions on the upper story and a considerable number of high-style decorative brackets used in conjunction with support pillars on the lower story. The gable over the front entry had decorative half-timbering. Much of this detailing has been removed to accommodate the siding and the addition of aluminum soffits, which have enclosed the eaves and any other detailing under them. The house still has its original front door, which has fifteen divided lights, but the ornate art-glass sidelights on each side have been replaced with plain glass. Originally the home had extensive bands of vertical wood casement art-glass windows; the only remaining art glass is in the small upper story windows and the small windows flanking the brick fireplace on the south elevation. Nearly all of the windows have been replaced, and in some cases it appears the size of the window openings has been altered. The historic photo shows the extensive use of window flower boxes, and it is likely that the house once had the same built-in supports for them that the majority of the other homes have. There is still a large brick chimney with a decorative brick pattern on the south elevation of the house, but little else of the original exterior remains (Noncontributing).

Oak Circle in News: The First Historic District in Wilmette -Tribune