Highland Park Public Library Local Newspapers Site

Wilmette Life (Wilmette, Illinois), 27 Oct 1938, p. 61

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in a package frorn tne snelf ana put together on a plot of ground. For more than a generation, mass production, of homes has been in the making. , Before the,* turn of the, century-back in. 1897-Tho.mas. AI Edison had the idea of prefabricat- ing houses of concrete. He wanted permanence and low cost. Perman- ence he got-low cost he did flot, g.et. Low cost. of mass production has ýeluded Most ail of the experi- mrenters., Today mass production of single homes at low. cost is not far from solu-tion. M'anufacturers of big enou gh dimensions to do big things. have.:taken the.job seriously, such as the American Rolling Mills' of Middletowrl,,,.O.. the Harnî*schfeger Corporation of Milwaukee and the Gunnison, Corporation. of, New AI- bany, Jnd., and are turning out- houses in a package ready to set Up. liow Lowis "Low?" 1 * The an.sweris, for the lowest cost mass produced home. haif as high. For steel houýses it is two-thirds as high. Let.us puit the fiures in sim- ple arithmnetic. Ask any, good contractor to giveý *you cost per cuibic foot of acomnmon brick six-room. bath and a haif, air conditioned house and he wvîll tell you 40 cents. This is the typicalý Medium grade house such as can be seen by the crein any corn- producec homes as ..best .we can figure from data from the ma-nufac-. turer is 20 cent,> a cubic foot. 'The cost of competing steel house is 30, cents a, cubic foot. This is respec- tively haîf, and. two-thirds of the cost :of the house built in place by handi. Moreoveryou can mnove into' the pre-f-abric ated house two weeks, after erection. has started whereas the. handbuilt house will take somne four months to build after plans are cost homes. If these pioneer ex- periences warrant further develop- ment, pienty of lots cati be worked out of the open spaces along thè Skokie from areas. that are now, broken-backed. with special asses- ments and some that are not. * A Matter of Six Inches However,' before the low cost houses can be built in North Shore towns, building codes will -halveto, be revised inone or more deta ils. Not long ago*Genera'Houseg, which builds a steel house many, of us saw at the WQrld's Fair. came to the building. commissioner of Wilmette for a permit. The permit Was denied becausetihe ceil ingheight was eightý feet, whereas the code calîs for eight feet and, six inches. The Gunnison house also has an eight-foot ceiling. We can, show you a finely built house under the eaves of the Univer-~ sity of Illinois and designed by a member of its architectural depart- ment in which itheê oe1in~g. eight is eight feet. Why should Wilmette in- sist on six inches more? Probablyi because its code was copied largelYý fromn that of the city of Chicago. Chicago wa's once more worthy of example than, in recent years. Any North Shore village whîch kee.ps out the low cost home for so: trivial a non-conformance as six l inches in ceiling height 'might well. thin.ký it over. It behooves us to annual income. The, head new, family making $150 a month- and how many make more? cannot. undertake ownership of a home cost- îng much more than $3.600. How else can that family's best aspir- ations be made a community asset except by the low cost home? Thei wiser communities will put, on their. thinking caps and see how they can help. AaxShingle&M drn igC. wilmetteState ýBank Buildin~g G. W; SWINEY, Mgr. Wilmette 1248 REAL ESTATE LOANS 0 F ALL TYPES MONTHLY PAY MENT, LOW IT1 ES LOANS S TO 20 YEARS, CONSTRUCTION REFINANCINGý Preferred Loans - 4!/% interest - no commission 1564 SHERMAN AVENUE* EVANSTON Universty 0283 11 Rogers Park 0271 Wilmette 2486 COLONIAL HOMEý Pictuired on this page) with SEVEN ROOMS and THREE BATHS Village Residentia Wiimette...... $ 53,000 Renilworth -* . - 17,000 Winnetka ...... 36,000 Glencoe........ 43,425 Township....$149425 $21 ,850 $5,000 550 900 $2,050 very .Cail S, ,Skokie Boulevard at give you further details. $178,325 '1

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