Benjamin Zastrow
2502 Dahle St.
They served the needs of the common people. The mostly two-bedroom, one-and-a-half story homes made use of prefabricated materials, yet technology — some developed at Madison’s Forest Products Laboratory — made them strong. They could be built in a week.
Barbara Essock of Historic Madison, Inc., is excited about the selection of the Eken Park neighborhood for this year’s Alternate Parade of Homes tour. “This is the first time we’ve highlighted a specifically labor and workingman’s neighborhood,” says Essock, a longtime board member of Historic Madison. The group’s Alternate Parades have been held for over 30 years.
The aim is not to see how new owners have renovated or decorated the structures; it’s “about the history of the city,” says Essock, “and how homes tell that history.”
Here, the story centers on “boys coming home from World War II,” says Essock, “and needing to start a life.”
Eken Park was built on land that was formerly the Eken farm and home to Madison’s first airport. The lots were primarily developed in the 1940s, especially as World War II drew to a close. An Illinois developer named John Tilton built a great number of the homes, beginning in 1942. The area of Myrtle and Coolidge Streets has been singled out by architecture scholars as one of the best preserved examples of this kind of 1940s returning soldier/workingman’s housing in the nation. While remodeling has taken place, the neighborhood itself looks much as it did in the 1940s, with few teardowns.
Benjamin Zastrow
560 North St. (left), and 601 North St.
Essock got started creating this year’s tour simply by “knocking on doors” to see if homeowners would participate. The five houses are 2414 Myrtle St., 2302 Coolidge St., 2502 Dahle St., and 621 and 622 North St. Also included will be two businesses at North Street and Commercial Avenue: the Tip Top Tavern and Ogden’s North Street Diner. Docents will be at each site on the self-guided tour to answer questions; some owners will also be on hand.
Delores Kester of Historic Madison is also working on this year’s tour. She and her late husband, Burr Angle, lived near Eken Park, and Angle became interested in researching the history of the area. Kester continues his work; their article about the technology behind prefabricated houses of this era in Madison is forthcoming in Historic Madison: A Journal of the Four Lake Region.
“It’s like walking back into the 1940s,” she says of Myrtle and Coolidge streets. Kester attributes the “pristine” quality of the area to the lack of through streets, other than Commercial Avenue. Eken Park is just a little bit cut off, a bit of an island. But when the homes were built, there was easy access to jobs at Oscar Mayer. Many other residents worked for Ray-O-Vac (then located near Union Corners). “Not everyone is wealthy and can live in a mansion,” Kester says.
Kester notes that the homes were designed to be expanded — returning GIs could buy them and after they had saved enough money, turn the attic into a bedroom.
Essock reminds visitors that an important part of the Alternate Parade every year is just “Looking! Looking around and seeing what has happened in the last 100 years in our town. Neighborhoods tell a story of our history in each decade, and how the city has changed.”
The Alternate Parade of Homes will take place on Sunday, Oct. 1, from 1-4 p.m. Tickets, a fundraiser for Historic Madison Inc., are $10 and will be sold in Eken Park, at Coolidge and North Streets. More info at historicmadison.org.
