Hometown Celebrates The Big 7-0 Saturday With Free Concert

HOMETOWN, IL —In November of 1949, FHA officials cut the ribbon on the first home to be completed in the $16 million Hometown suburban housing project on 300 acres of prairie bounded by Crawford (Pulaski), 91st Street, Cicero and 87th Street.

Plans called for 1,510 single-family duplex units and 13 two-story apartment buildings containing 90 rental apartments in what was then the Chicago-area’s largest planned suburban community in the postwar era. The homes were tailor-made for returning World War II and Korean veterans “who didn’t have a heap of money.”

Located 11 miles southwest of the Loop, chances were if you were driving down Southwest Highway in 1950 you may have spotted a billboard that read: “Hometown: $8,500, 2 Bedroom Ranch Houses, J.E. Merrion & Co.” The price included sewer, water, paving, sidewalks, land and landscaping.

According to historic documents available at the Hometown Library, veterans were able to purchase a duplex unit with a down payment of $200 and a monthly mortgage of $58.68. If you were not a veteran, you needed a down payment of $1,400 and your monthly mortgage payments were $52.34.

Within a few short years, the less than one-square-mile planned community had built its own parish and grammar school, and opened the Hometown Plaza shopping center on Southwest Highway in 1951.

The community had become so successful and self-sustaining that on June 6,1953, it was incorporated as a city. Then-Cook County Clerk Richard J. Daley swore in Hometown's first city council.

This Saturday, Hometown will celebrate its 70th anniversary, June 3, with a concert under the stars in Mayors Park, adjacent to city hall at 4331 Southwest Highway (the park with the splash pad). Bring your coolers and lawn chairs and enjoy a FREE concert from 7 to 10 p.m. performed by Average Joe and the Energy.