September 2008

© Suburban Journals of  Chicago Inc. photo

More Healthy Trees Slated For Destruction in
Oak Park Parks to Allow Proposed Pavilion Construction in Mills Park

John Mac Manus of Altamanu Inc.  headed a meeting in Oak
Park hosted by the Oak Park Parks Board.  The meeting took
place from 7:00 pm until 9:00 pm at Farson Mills House at
217 Home Avenue in  Oak Park.    The first 35 minutes
Mr. Mac Manus spoke and presented audio visual slides,
some history of the home and its design.  The design of the
Historic Pleasant Home, (a U.S. National Historic Landmark)
was sold to the Oak Park Park District by the family of its
second owner, Herbert Mills, in 1939. Mills Park still bears
his name, though many call it the Farson-Mills Home and
now it is often referred to as “Pleasant Home” since it is
located at the corners of Pleasant and Home in Oak Park.

Less than 40 residents, the majority of the Park Board, and
Park staff came out for the second in a series of three meetings 
George W. Maher (Bio),  the architect of the Farson-Mills
(Pleasant Home) was a well known designer who worked with
others in the Prairie School style of architecture. Frank Lloyd
Wright was the leader of that movement, but Maher had an
impact as well and he designed nearly half a hundred homes
in the modern style for its day in Kenilworth, Illinois (the
northside of Chicagoland along the Lake), a very wealthy region
of Illinois. Herbert Mills bought the home from the Farson
family, when Mr. Farson died early in his mid-fifties about
1910. The original carriage house burned down in about 1913,
but had been rebuilt before the Village bought the property.
In 1960 the Oak Park & River Forest Historical Society
moved into the Mill House, and has remained since that time
due to no other locations being made available to them. Some members of the Historical Society would have liked very much
to have seen the old Coach house rebuilt and have the society
within the structure. Mills slot machine history and company
info here, Some additional talk of the original plans for the
area surrounding the house and what was later built.

The original home had a fountain in the yard, a carriage
house, a conservatory and some long gone walk ways. 
The coach house is gone, the walkways are gone, the fountain
is gone, and a greenhouse is gone. Many would like to have
seen the entire area rebuilt the way that it was. The residence
in the Mills Tower (a subsidized housing unit in the Village for
the elderly without adequate  housing)    had  expressed  their 
views  in  earlier questionnaires concerning the park and what
they wished for it.   The  residents  wanted  the  park  to remain 
green,  no playgrounds, ball fields, or other items to detract
from the pristine nature they observed.  When the talked turned
to ideas for the work to be done on the park Mr. John Mac
Manus said they had drawings for a pavilion, which he noted
had not been seen by many people on any of the boards let
alone citizens. He also noted in joking manner that some Oak
Park citizens would be upset by the idea since more trees would
have to be cut down to attach the structure to the existing house.
The reason given for the pavilion was explained to the citizens.
The audience was told that the pavilion was needed to raise
funds for the operation of the Pleasant Home, which was
estimated to be about $100,000 per year. The renting of the
home for for events helped raise some $33,000 per year, about
a third of the total expense. No cost was noted for the proposed expense of adding a pavilion, it would be discussed at the next
meeting on October 8th at Mills Park (7 p.m.). One resident
wanted a children's playground put into the park, and was not
willing to walk an additional two blocks to find one already in existence. Another woman recalled how people would bring balls
and toys and play in just the grassy areas of parks and that it
would be fine and not require any additions.

Another resident wanted a ‘natural’ looking play area put in,
things like fake trees for kids to walk through and other items
that appeared to be real and part of the living world. A woman
named Barbara, who lives on the perimeter of the park told
of drug selling right out side of her window in the park. She
said that money would exchange hands between kids and items
would be passed back to kid who had paid. The kids were
vulgar and loud in their talk. Barbara told me later that she
called the police each time she saw drugs being sold in the park,
and that the past year there was less of it. A young mother with
two children aged one and two said that she loved the pristine
park and that it allows her children to experience nature. An
older gentleman said that he would like to see some gardens
in the park. He was later told by Mr. John Mac Manus that
if they did get gardens the parks would not have the money to
take care of them and volunteers would be needed to manage the gardens. Mr.  added that often volunteers fall by the side in their commitment. A young professional woman said that she would
like more lights in the park and some police call boxes at a few locations. She said that she walks now with her cell phone in
her hands because of some of the questionable things she has
seen in the park. Another female resident who lives on the
perimeter of the park also, said that her young daughter was
asking her several times why the park always had homeless
people in it. Some discussion followed about park benches
that you could not sleep on, and more might be installed.