Cubs Pride

A proud neighbor on the 6600 block of Maplewood displays a Cubs banner as the team heads into the playoffs.

Did you know that legendary Cubs catcher, "dangerous hitter" and Hall of Famer Charles "Gabby" Hartnett lived in West Ridge in a home at the corner of Talman and Albion in the 1930s?

Doors of West Ridge

New West Ridge book and Historic District

Rogers Park / West Ridge Historical Society and West Ridge Bungalow Neighbors invite you to a celebration of the newly crated Talman West Ridge Bungalow National Historic District and the release of the new book Images of America: West Ridge

Tuesday, September 23, 7:00 – 8:30 p.m.
Northtown Public Library, 6435 N. California Avenue, Chicago

Authors Jamie Santoro and Jacque Day will be on hand to discuss their new book Images of America: West Ridge. Books will be available for sale, with a portion of the proceeds benefiting RP/WRHS. (Look here for a nice article about the book from the News-Star.)

Greg & Maribeth Brewer and Jofrid Stavig of WRBN as well as representatives of the Historic Chicago Bungalow Association will talk about the newly nominated Talman West Ridge Bungalow Historic District*. Learn the history of the homes in this area and what it means to be part of a National Register Historic District. (The photo is from our September 12th presentation to the State for approval of the district at the beautiful Veterans Memorial Hall in Rockford.)

*The Talman West Ridge National Register Bungalow Historic District encompasses the 6600 block of N. Fairfield, the 2700 block of W. North Shore, the 6600 block of N. Washtenaw, the 6400, 6500, 6600 and 6700 blocks of N. Talman, the 2600 and 2700 blocks of W. Albion, the 6500 block of N. Rockwell, the 2500 block of W. Arthur, the 6500 block of N. Maplewood and the West side of the 6500 block of N. Campbell.

Tradional Building Show

The Traditional Building Show is coming to Navy Pier on September 18-20. Click here for details. Attendees will find a wealth of resources for owners of historic homes.

Getting ready for fall

It's been a big weekend for home improvement projects on our block - here's our neighbor up the street preparing to do some planting.

New coppper

It doesn't show very well in my photos, but a neighbor on Campbell is having new copper gutters installed today. She said these are replacing the original copper gutters from the 1920s. They're a big investment, but should last another 80 years and no painting required.

Power washing!

Today our neighbor has a crew of guys working on power washing his bungalow. (They had to cut down the old evergreen shrubs to get to the front of the house.) This is where they stopped for a lunch break, you can see the dramatic before and after results.