The Villa, a triangle of 126 houses bordered by Addison, Pulaski, Avondale and Hamlin, was founded in 1907, when residents of an increasingly congested city were seeking single family homes surrounded by green space and clean air. The history of the Villa is similar to that of many other residential developments conceived around the turn of the last century, with houses built and marketed away from the noise and congestion of the central city, and near the convenience of railroad stations and streetcar lines.
But with the Villa there was a twist:its developers had a vision and a plan to prevent the unchecked growth, density and incompatible building styles so damaging to the original beauty and character of many city neighborhoods.Today, the Villa Improvement League (VIL), the city’s oldest continuously operating neighborhood association, keeps that vision alive.
The VIL meets five times a year to plan social activities, organize beautification projects and cultivate relationships with nearby neighborhood associations, city agencies and historical and architectural organizations.Members of the VIL plant and maintain the parkways, the stone planters on the corners and flower boxes along the railroad embankment; organize a fall picnic and winter dinner, and conduct architectural walking tours for the public.In 1978, members of the VIL began a five-year project to secure historic landmark status for the neighborhood, which was realized in 1983.
