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Lincoln Park Workers Cottage Built in 1886 Gets New Life Amid the Mansions

By Paul Biasco | November 15, 2013 8:25am | Updated on November 15, 2013 9:38am
 The owner of the home at 625 W. Armitage Ave. is seeking a zoning variance to put on a two-story addition and reduce the amount of space between the house and the edge of the property.
The owner of the home at 625 W. Armitage Ave. is seeking a zoning variance to put on a two-story addition and reduce the amount of space between the house and the edge of the property.
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DNAinfo/Paul Biasco

LINCOLN PARK — A quaint, one-story workers cottage on a small Lincoln Park lot along Armitage Avenue will soon grow up if a developer has his way.

The cottage at the corner of Armitage and Howe, which was built in 1886, is one of the last homes of the kind in the neighborhood.

The owner, developer John Novak, who bought the cottage on the prime piece of land for $485,000 in 2008, is seeking to add a second story with a balcony and a two-story rear addition to the one-story home at 625 W. Armitage Ave., according to city documents.

The application for a zoning change on the home shows Novak wants to reduce the distance between the front of the home and the edge of the property from 9.6 feet to 2 feet, and reduce the distance between the rear of the home and the property line from 22.4 feet to 9.84 feet.

"It is one of the last — it might be the last workers cottage in Lincoln Park," said Eric Rojas of Kale Realty. "It's always been this little house on the corner there and it's got an awful building next to it."

The 801-square-foot home at the end of what Rojas calls "Mansion Row" down Howe Street sits on a tiny 17-by-80-foot lot versus the standard 25-by-125-foot lot.

The home is dwarfed by large condo or apartment buildings on the east, south and west.

"You have Mansion Row. You have all that new construction. You have condos," Rojas said. "It's hard to not look at it when you go by."

There are two public notices slapped on the front of the vine-covered cottage informing neighbors of the request for the zoning change, which is set to go in front of the city's zoning board of appeal Friday afternoon.

"I always thought it was very charming," said Jennifer Roche, a former Lincoln Park resident who blogged about the home back in 2007.