Don’t look for spinning wheels or butter churns in Park Forest. The relics from this south suburb’s residential past, which are featured in its house museum, include a black-and-white television set in a heavy wooden console, a 1950s-era Formica dinette set and a transistor radio.
Park Forest is young compared to other suburban towns. And village officials aren’t trying to bring back old-style televisions or poodle skirts. But they are preserving their community’s history and would also like, in some ways, to replicate the suburb’s early days.
At the same time, they are eager to update Park Forest’s image.
Just as it did in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s, the village is attracting new housing. It is also trying some innovative plans for encouraging residents to stay put.
“A lot of people moved to Park Forest, liked it and stayed. Now we’ve got an aging community,” said Village Manager Tom Mich.
The statistics prove Mich right. According to the Census Bureau, the village’s total population in 2000 was about 23,0000. Twenty percent of that population was over 55 years old.
Those 55-year-olds were babies in 1945 when soldiers began returning from service in World War II. They were met by a shortage of housing.
The city got its start when developer Philip M. Klutznick, along with Nathan Manilow and Carroll F. Sweet, unveiled and proceeded with a plan to build a new self-governing community.
“Park Forest was one of these towns that was built at one time by one developer,” said Steve Hovany, president of Strategy Planning Associates Inc., a planning and economic development consulting firm in Schaumburg.
“It has gone through the ups and downs that other communities in the south suburbs have and it’s forever trying to progress like an escalator going up,” he added.
The village has a history of being innovative.
“It was a completely privately planned community. Plus, it was not built with streets on the Chicago grid-style system. The streets are curvilinear. There is a lot of open space, neighborhood schools and churches,” said Hildy Kingma, describing the community’s appeal. She is director of economic development and planning.
When it comes to making improvements, efforts to keep the community vital are multipronged and include attracting new residential development, redeveloping sites with other uses, and bringing older homes into the 21st Century, by adding space and contemporary features.
Hovany is not surprised to hear about some of Park Forest’s forward-thinking plans.
“I think the village has a core of officials who are creative when it comes to planning. And they have a history of innovative planning which is lacking in other communities,” Hovany said.
One unique way the city is seeking to update its housing stock is by offering architectural plans for expanding or improving the approximately 4,000 single-family houses that were built from the 1940s to 1950s.
The village hired an architect who has developed three separate renovation plans for five existing two- and three-bedroom homes, originally built in the 1950s.
The plans, available to residents at a cost of $10, can convert a basic 1,200-square-foot residence into a contemporary home using fresh designs and more efficient materials.
Two local lending institutions, U.S. Bank and First Midwest Bank, are offering residents special financing packages below prime. Typical costs for a complete renovation range from $40,000 to $70,000, depending on the amount of remodeling work involved.
“Maintaining and retaining quality housing stock in Park Forest is very important to our community’s overall well-being,” said Mayor John Ostenburg. “Having programs such as these are incentives for more home investment, which will benefit everyone in our village.”
People, it seems, already like living in Park Forest and want to stay. The Census Bureau reports that the village’s vacant housing level is 3.5 percent, or 62 percent below the 9 percent national average.
For the most part, residents live in the single-family homes built during the town’s boomtown years in the early 1950s. Through the decades, many of these homes have been improved. In 2006, for instance, the village issued 530 remodeling permits.
Still, the village did see some residents move away in search of bigger, newer houses.
“We’ve had a lot of people who have come to us over the years because they couldn’t find a larger home that meets their family’s needs and they’ve moved,” said Kingma.
“Now they don’t have to move. You can get all the convenience of a new construction and stay in a community you love.”
The village recently created a residential marketing task force which is recommending ways to attract young professionals and people termed “creatives,” a category which Kingma said includes everyone from artists to scientists.
“Park Forest has a long tradition of attracting both groups and we have many resources that are attractive to both,” Kingma said.
One of the community’s prime resources is Freedom Hall, which she said is one of the very few performing arts stages owned and operated by a municipality in the Chicago metropolitan area.
The village also has the Illinois Theatre Center, the Tall Grass Arts Association School and Gallery, and the Salon Artists Gallery.
The Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra and the Grand Prairie Choral Group were both founded and have their headquarters in Park Forest.
The strategies the village is working on to attract young professionals and creative-types includes sending a Park Forest representative to college fairs and advertising in publications that are geared toward young college graduates in professional jobs.
The cost of a starter home in Park Forest is likely to be a draw for such young buyers. Houses built in the early 1950s with two to three bedrooms are priced at $110,000 to $125,000.
The idea of remodeling an existing house might appeal to members of a group that has a lot of youthful energy and enthusiasm.
“They are typically more adventurous than those of us who feel more settled. Perhaps they would be more willing to take on a major remodeling job to get just the house they want,” Kingma said.
For people not interested in tackling a remodeling project, new housing is being developed.
Legacy Square consists of 63 new single-family houses in the town center. They have a quaint look, but display an abundance of modern amenities.
“They look traditional on the outside. They have a small-town flavor. But the insides have open floor plans and are contemporary,” said Michael Venetis, vice president of sales and marketing for Aurora-based Bigelow Homes.
Front porches, for instance, give a quaint, homey look to the houses, priced from about $153,383 to $188,323 for floor plans that range from two bedrooms plus a loft to four bedrooms.
While the village is targeting young professionals, Venetis said the buyers at Legacy Square are connecting with buyers from across the both ends of the age spectrum, including young families and older people.
“We’re seeing empty-nesters, people who were the pioneers of Park Forest and don’t want to leave,” he said.
The development’s location in the heart of the village’s downtown area means buyers don’t need to hop in their cars to go shopping, visit the library or see a performance at Freedom Hall, Venetis said.
The village’s downtown, called Park Forest Plaza, was considered ahead of its time in the early 1950s when people flocked to what was billed as a regional mall. It was anchored by three major department stores, including Marshall Field’s. It had smaller stores centered around a central grassy area.
The 1970s, however, saw the mall declining and shoppers going elsewhere.
The Village purchased Park Forest Plaza in December 1995, converting the former mall into a traditional, mixed-use, “main street” downtown.
Legacy Square, for instance, will expand with additional housing units in the late fall. They will be constructed on the former Marshall Field’s parking lot.
The call for more upscale housing has been heard by the village which, though landlocked, has found an answer. It is planning to redevelop for housing 68 acres of the 85-acre Hidden Meadows Golf Course at 23521 Crawford Ave.
Kingma said the village has two proposals from developers, who would build housing that would cost upward of $250,000. The remaining 17 acres would be kept as open space.
Whether it’s with plans for updating its 1950s housing stock or by turning a golf course into new houses, Hovany has praise for the village that has taken stock of its assets and is trying to stay vital.
“It’s all about coming to grips with who you are and taking that and adapting it to the 21st Century,” he said.
