Tour Berwyn

Berwyn’s architecture exudes the charm and patina of a historical home with family charm. With construction booming during the Roaring Twenties, early residents sought to craft quality homes to which, the Berwyn Bungalow was born. With a significant collection of bungalow style homes, Berwyn also offers other beautiful varieties of architecture for its residents. Tree lined streets displaying sturdy brick homes, victorians, and historical homes from some of the best architects - coined the well known name “The City of Homes”.

VICTORIANS

You can’t miss one of Berwyn’s Queen Anne Victorians. Featuring signature style details like beautiful wrap-around porches, turrets, towers, and ornamental details, Queen Anne’s give a nod to the extravagance of a by-gone era. Despite their ornateness, many of the materials required to build a Victorian home were being mass produced at the time. They were able to be shipped easily, all thanks to the widespread train routes that were established that included stops in Berwyn.

TUDOR REVIVALS

Tudor Revival style houses are some of the more recent houses to be built in Berwyn, starting to appear in the 1940s. Tudor Revivals tend to sit on smaller lots than their Bungalow neighbors as they were built to be a more affordable option. These houses boast a very steep pitched roof and intersecting gable roofs and are always one and a half stories high. Some feature small front porches, but many have no porch at all. Berwyn’s Tudors tend to feature intricate stonework that frames different parts of the home. BUNGALOWS

Berwyn’s Bungalows were all generally built around the same time in the 1920s to 1930s. Although many Bungalows in a block were sometimes built by the same workers, each house in Berwyn is unique, with subtle differences from its neighbors by design or made by the owners over the years. The roof line, style of shingles, limestone accents, and even the style of decorative face brick combine in endless ways from house to house. The Bungalows in Berwyn are also full of ornamental details such as tiled roofs, stained glass windows, checkerboard brick patterns, and intricate limestone insets. The Central Berwyn Bungalow Historic District is roughly bounded by Cermak Road, Home Avenue, Ridgeland & Cuyler Avenues, and 26th Street.

FRENCH NORMANDY

After World War I, the French Normandy architecture style became popular among the growing middle class in America. Inspired by French chateaus, these houses were versions built on a smaller and more affordable scale. French Normandy houses often feature arched doorways, steep roof pitches, high ridge lines, dormers, halftimbering, and a round stone tower topped by a conical roof usually serving as either the entrance or simply a design feature.

NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES In 2015, the Central Berwyn Bungalow Historic District made it onto the National Register’s list of Historic Places for the seventh time. In addition, two unique Berwyn homes are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Some of the first homes to be built in Berwyn, American Foursquares are unique in their effective use of space. Popular around the 1910s, they were chosen because of their simplicity compared to their fancier Victorian counterparts. Common features of an American Foursquare are two and a half stories, large overhanging eaves, and a large front porch with wide steps. They tended to be built on larger lots, providing residents with plenty of space to plan and plant beautifully landscaped front lawns.

ARTHUR J. DUNHAM HOUSE In 1982, this home was added to the National Register of Historic Places because of its clear representation of the Prairie style. THE SILHAN HOUSE In 2007, this home made it onto the National Register of Historic Places for its well-preserved style and its many features from the Art Moderne style that make it notable on a local and national level.