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November 5, 1927 WINNETKA TALK WESTMOOR TRAIL If you are one of the many look- ing for the exceptional location for building a beautiful home of your own, no doubt you have had much the same experience as many others. You have been reluctant to spend the amount of money that is ordin- arily required for sufficient ground or frontage to set off properly the type of house you have in mind. Be- cause, in the first place, a desirable location with the necessary front- age is extremely hard to find; and second, if you did find it the price would probably be so high as to make it prohibitive or at least un- justifiable. And yet you have right- ly analyzed for yourself "Why spend a lot of money for a fine home and be confined to a small lot?" THE QUEST FOR ELBOW ROOM What impels one to go to the suburbs anyway? Is it not to get away? To have, first of all, more 'elbow room'? To have a location off of Main Street? To have more privacy? To get away from the road--from the noise, and dust and smoke and dirt? To have peace, quiet--just a little seclusion? To be away--ryet not too far? If so--then surely the most de- sirable Jocation would be that which gives you most of those advantages. And yet--in Winnetka for property which you have favorably considered as having some of these advantages, you have been confronted with paying from $15,- 000 to $20,000 or more--and at most, probably a lot of only one hundred foot frontage. Placing the house you had in mind on this 100 foot frontage with neighbors' houses on a like size frontage on either side--you wake up with a bang: your house is, at the best, going to be 20 to 30 feet from your neighbor's. Not that you dislike neighbors; but the object of the original impulse that sends you out--more room--simply isn't there! Talk to the friends you have, living in any of the suburbs. Take those who have spent thirty, forty, fifty thousand or more for fine homes--beautiful homes--they --in Winnetka will all tell you they wish they had bought more ground. They wish they had spent a few thousand more for frontage, even at a sacrifice, if necessary, of a few thousand less to spend upon the house. Unless one gets this additional frontage at the start, they are simply out of luck. Someone else has long since built upon it. So this is the first point in the advan- tages offered in Westmoor Trail--in Winnetka. You will be interested in noting on the following pages, the landscape and architectural plan by Arthur Dean, a resident of Winnetka, showing a most ef- fective use of this beautiful plot of ground, so exceptionally located. This plan, drawn to scale well illustrates this point. Notice the "elbow room." No house is nearer the adjoining house than eighty feet, most of them are ninety feet or more --close enough to be neighborly and friendly, and not so close as to be too familiar. And yet these "lots" or "'plots," as you may choose to call them, with frontages ranging from 173 to 220 feet are available at prices approximating the "hundred foot lots" elsewhere of com- 'parative desirability. Another advantage of location is to be off of the main highway. Far better not to be on a street at all. Not because it's "ritzy" to be on a private drive, but be- cause it is mighty sweet to be able to go to bed at night and not have traffic roar- ing by at 60 per or brakes grinding to avoid the smash you are always expecting. Like "dropping the other shoe." To reduce the hazards of traffic for your children is certainly one of your foremost considerations. But it isn't every location that permits this even though we admit its desirability. Traffic must have its highways. So, un- less there is some inherent factor that per- mits a private drive--or rather something that prohibits a public thoroughfare--or a plan definitely made in advance, it is rarely attained. The tract of land to which this article refers, Westmoor Trail, is on the west side of Hibbard Road in Win- netka--immediately north of what would be, if continued, the center line of West- moor Road (formerly Fig Street). This tract leads down to the Community Golf Course, is part of the Village Park Sys- tem--overlooking the beautiful Skokie Valley. Since no benefit would be served by making a public roadway to or through the park and golf course at this point, Westmoor Trail lends itself to a private drive with ample security for the future. So this location admirably adapts itself to the plan, which is point number two. Another important consideration is the type of homes to be built and the kind of neighbors you are going to have. Dollars and cents restrictions mean little or noth- ing. On a plot of sufficient size, in an artistic landscape setting of your own choosing, a type and size of home can be built to meet your particular requirements. It may be fairly modest in cost and yet fit in with the general landscape and archi- tectural plan. Restrictions will be reason- able, only such as are for the common good. Large plots and agreed locations for houses on those plots together with land- scaping to beautify and not to obscure will assure always a wonderful outlook. AN AREA OF PRESENT AND GROW- ING VALUES To determine the present type of homes nearby, drive out and look for yourself. Aside from the small farm house on this tract and the one adjoining it to the north, homes within a radius of four or five blocks represent investments or pre- sent worth of forty thousand to sixty thousand or more. Get the names of those who live here. Try to buy one of these homes. No "For Sale" signs around here. They are homes that represent the sub- stantial--the permanent--the successful. T hese are the things that make for value --permanent, increasing value. Try to buy some adjoining or nearby vacant. The prices asked for it will quick- ly assure you that when it does change hands, and is built upon, only fine homes can go in here. And also remember that by virtue of this particular location, and the plan upon which it is laid out--West- moor Trial will be a little world all its own. Just one thing more--note particularly in the plan on the succeeding pages how little landscaping there is and yet how ef- fective. No masses of trees here. If you expect a dense forest here, you are doomed to disappointment. Trees? Yes--Ilook in any direction and you have trees for a background. But masses of trees here to obscure? No! This is open land--open to the sunshine. Everything to preserve the view. We all love trees--we want them. But we also love sunshine and the open spaces. Gently sloping to the west --appropriately named, this is the story of Westmoor Trail.