Finding blueprints for all those bungalows 'a tough nut'

Chicago's Bungalow Belt is estimated to have 80,000 HistoricChicago Bungalows within it. Yet, to date, only two sets ofblueprints for specific houses have been found -- both in the NorthMayfield neighborhood. But the fact is that each of the 80,000bungalows between 1910 and 1940 had to have some kind of plan forworkers to follow at the time of its construction.

"Only two [blueprints] of all those bungalows that were built postfire?" asked Bob Yapp, who will be speaking at Bungalow Expo 2005."Yeah, finding blueprints is a tough nut." Yapp, who is known as thePBS "House Doctor," said his job is that of a consumer's advocate forowners of old homes.

"The builders had to have some kind of print for the carpenters toframe them up or for the masons to do the brickwork. It might not bea full-blown blueprint," Yapp said.

"People should get up in their crawl space, their half storiesand their attics, and look around in the rafters and look around inthe floor joints up in there," he said. "Sometimes I've seen themstuck up into the rafters down in the basement."

Yapp said that he has found only four blueprints in the 152buildings that he has purchased and restored in his life. He alsosuggested that looking for plan books might be the way to go.

"I think there were some books published for post-fire Chicagobungalows," Yapp said. "If you could run down the prominent builders,run down family members or maybe some of the builders are still inbusiness under some other name, you might run into some of thoseauthentic old plan books."

Volunteers are working with the Historic Chicago BungalowAssociation to find more of these Historic Chicago Bungalow buildingplans and blueprints so they can be copied. They are also lookingfor additional information about the bungalow architects, such astheir educations, awards and colleagues.

These architects were known to have designed Historic ChicagoBungalows:

*Benedict Bruns.

*Lyman J. Allison.

*Ernest N. Braucher.

*Dewey & Pavlovich.

*William Presto.

If you have information about these architects or think you have aset of blueprints, contact volunteer Beth Martin by e-mail atINFO@bungalowcrafts.com or write to her at P.O. Box 6167, Evanston,IL, 60204.

For more information about Chicago's Bungalow Initiative, toidentify whether your home might be an example of a Chicago Bungalowor to learn more about preservation, certification financing andevents, visit www.chicago bungalow.org or attend the Historic ChicagoBungalow Expo 2005 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the IllinoisInstitute of Technology.