The Design History of Chicago’s Workers Cottage
Also today: Heavy rain cancels Olympics training in the Seine, and how crop insurance prevents US farmers from adapting.
Source: Chicago Workers Cottage Initiative
Before bungalows became a mainstay of Chicago suburbs, workers cottages proliferated outside city limits. Built in the wake of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, these homes were more modest and utilitarian in design, with a wooden frame and a steep gable. They served as entry-level homes for immigrants, and were considered the first true housing for Chicago’s middle class.
Today, these workers cottages are no longer the ladder to a middle-class lifestyle and security, contributor Zach Mortice writes in the latest edition of our Iconic Home Design series. In fact, their persistence in some places and demolition in others reflect the city’s ongoing struggle for affordable housing. Today on CityLab: Chicago Workers Cottages Gave Immigrants Access to Homeownership