History By Design: Connecting neighbors, the story of two utility buildings

We take electric power and telephone service for granted, but there are compelling stories related to their history in Highland Park and Winnetka.

Electricity came to Highland Park in 1890 with the founding of the Highland Park Electric Company. The first electric plant was located in a barn-like building along the Chicago & North Western railway tracks at 525 Elm Place. Residents, however, were not thrilled with this innovation, thinking that incandescent lighting would never replace gas lamps and that electric wiring was a fire hazard.

In 1893, when Highland Parkers visited the World’s Columbian Exposition, they were impressed with the brilliant displays of electric lighting that bathed the fair’s stately buildings and were more enthused about bringing electric power to their home town.

Once electricity came to Highland Park, it was only available after 4 p.m., when a loud whistle would blow to warn lineman to stop working because the generator was about to begin sending electricity through the lines. The lines would buzz as the current went through. Buzz became slang. “What’s the buzz” was an inquiry for the latest news. The town would “buzz” with excitement.

In 1901-’02, utilities tycoon Samuel Insull bought out the electric company. By this time, the engine and generator in the old structure were obsolete, and in 1909 the equipment was installed in the handsome understated red brick building that replaced the old wood barn. An excellent example of adaptive reuse, the historic building currently serves as office space.

The Winnetka exchange of Illinois Bell Telephone Company (now AT&T) at 794 Oak St. began in 1932 and completed in 1933 — during the worst years of the Depression, when new construction was almost unheard of. The architect was Holabird & Root.

For generations, Holabird and Root was one of the leading architecture firms in Chicago, beginning in the late 1880s as Holabird & Roche, which laid out Fort Sheridan and designed 55 buildings there. In the late 1920s Holabird & Root changed Chicago’s skyline with landmarks such as the Chicago Board of Trade Building and the Palmolive Building. Illinois Bell was an important client of the firm, having designed facilities across the Chicago area for telephone exchanges.

The Winnetka facility is more than just utilitarian. It is a fine example of “dignified Georgian” architecture as Illinois Bell called it. The “mellow”-toned brick building with limestone trim is imposing and symmetrical. Its Georgian characteristics include a classical entrance topped by a triangular pediment, fluted pilasters at the corners and prominent chimneys. Its restraint reflects a nod toward 1930s modernism. For example, the Georgian pilasters are abstracted and simplified. 

In a gracious touch, the building is set back on its lot to provide for landscaping at the front and side, rare in a village business district. The building complemented Winnetka’s classically inspired Village Hall designed by Edwin Hill Clark in 1925.

Inside, on the first floor, there was originally a customer service desk. Upstairs there were quarters for operators who connected customers to one another up until 1957, when dial phones allowed people to call one another directly.

History By Design is The Record’s monthly column focusing on the North Shore’s special and influential architectural history. Local historians and authors Susan S. Benjamin and Robert A. Sideman write and research the column.