Kenilworth is the smallest community on the North Shore and the only lakefront village here planned as a complete community from the ground up. More than 130 years later, it still closely resembles that original plan, which makes it one of the most architecturally coherent places to build in the Chicago area.
A Village Built to a Plan
Kenilworth sits on Lake Michigan between Wilmette and Winnetka, covering roughly six-tenths of a square mile with only a few hundred homes. There is essentially no commercial district. What the village has instead is one school, one train station on the Metra Union Pacific North line, one historic community hall, and a residential fabric that has changed remarkably little since it was laid out.
That fabric traces to 1889, when Chicago businessman Joseph Sears purchased roughly 224 acres of woodland, pasture, and wetland and set out specific rules for how the village would be built. Streets were platted to maximize sunlight reaching each home. Utilities went underground. Alleys and fences were prohibited. Lots were large, setbacks generous, trees planted along the roadways, and parkland set aside, much of it from Sears' own property. Streets took their names from Sir Walter Scott's novel Kenilworth. Those decisions still govern how the village looks and feels today.
Kenilworth's beach and parks serve residents directly, Joseph Sears School educates the entire village through eighth grade, and students then attend New Trier. It is a small place where nearly everyone shares the same institutions.
A Century of Architecture
Kenilworth's architecture is its defining asset. George W. Maher, a Prairie School contemporary of Frank Lloyd Wright, bought into the village early, lived here, and went on to design roughly 37 homes along with the 1907 Kenilworth Assembly Hall, the entry fountain, benches, urns, bridges, and pylons. The village holds the largest concentration of Maher's work anywhere in the country. Franklin Burnham designed the train station and Kenilworth Union Church, and work by Joseph Lyman Silsbee, George Nimmons, John Van Bergen, and Frank Lloyd Wright appears throughout.
The styles range widely, from Queen Anne, Shingle, and Richardsonian Romanesque in the earliest homes through Prairie School and, after the First World War, Colonial, Tudor, and Italian Renaissance Revival. Variety, not uniformity, is what characterizes the village.
Designing for the Village Context
Two things shape a Kenilworth project. The first is the architectural context. On streets where many neighbors are century-old homes by significant architects, a new house or a substantial addition has to be designed with real care for scale, proportion, roofline, and materials. This is not about producing a replica. It is about building something of genuine quality that belongs where it stands.
The second is the village's size. Properties turn over infrequently, lots sit close together, and construction is visible to a large share of the community. Site management, staging, and communication with neighbors carry more weight here than in a larger town.
Building in Kenilworth With Globex
We have built custom homes and completed high-end interior projects throughout the North Shore since 2002. If you are considering a Kenilworth property, we are glad to walk it with you and give you an honest read on what it will support.
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