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Charles Westcott Apartments (remodeling) - 1917
and Garage
152 N. Scoville - Oak Park, Illinois

          The strange footprint of this building, its different foundations (stone, concrete and block) in different places - and different framing, trim and aesthetic characteristics show that this building had some permutations.
          This 4 unit apartment building is a remodeling of an already existing structure.  The original building seems to have been a large Victorian house.  Onto this were later additions (2 major ones in 1907 and 1913) which were probably to convert the building into apartments. 
          It seems that Van Bergen's work was to give the hodge-podge structure some visual unity and to update it to 1917 standards.  The main structural part of Van Bergen's work can be seen in the entry, the clay tile firewall added between the units (as seen in the basement) and the two masonry chimney cores to support the Van Bergen fireplaces.
          Most of the front portion of the apartments are trimmed out with the characteristic Van Bergen prairie moldings.  All the casement windows are modern (for 1917).  The rear part of the apartments have the prairie baseboards but older casings and 2 and 4 panel Victorian era doors. 

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