The Pleasant Ridge Historic District is on the National Register, eighty-five acres of a city of about three hundred and sixty-five. Residents here are used to the idea that what they own has a character to be respected. It’s worth saying plainly that the obligation stops at the property line, because a certain kind of homeowner starts to think it covers his wardrobe too.
It does not
Nobody who lives in a 1915 house owes it a 1915 suit. The houses here were built when men wore high-buttoning three-piece suits with waistcoats and hats, and putting one on today isn’t preservation, it’s fancy dress with a mortgage attached.
What does carry over
The habit of mind, which is worth more than any of the details. People who look after old houses understand that things are built to be repaired, that quality shows over decades rather than seasons, and that a plain thing done properly outlasts an interesting thing done cheaply.
Applied to a suit
That thinking lands on half-canvassed construction, $300 to $500, in a plain dark cloth, fitted properly and then maintained. It is exactly how the residents of this city treat their porches, and it produces the same result.
Also for Pleasant Ridge: A Pool Since 1930, and a Town That Knows Your Face. More on style consulting, or plan your visit to our Oak Park showroom.
