Masonry & Tuckpointing in Elmhurst, Illinois
Elmhurst dug limestone for a hundred and nine years, and the hole it left now holds the county's floodwater. What is in your wall is a separate question.
The quarry that became a reservoir
In 1883, someone drilling a well in Elmhurst hit limestone near the surface. The Elmhurst-Chicago Stone Company started with an 11-acre quarry and kept digging on that site for 109 years, until 1992.
Where the stone went matters, because it is the opposite of what we found in some other suburbs. The company's own history records the material going into Chicago and Northwestern Railroad roadbeds, state highways and public buildings in and around DuPage County, with early dimension stone sold to builders for foundations and walls.
In other words, in Elmhurst the stone was genuinely used locally. That is not a claim we can make everywhere.
Then the hole found a second job. DuPage County bought the site in 1992 for 64 million dollars and opened it in 1996 as a stormwater and flood control reservoir: 2.7 billion gallons, two connected lobes at 120 and 220 feet deep, six nine-foot submersible pumps at a quarter of a million dollars each. It fills about four times a year, and a full drain and aeration cycle takes about 72 days. The limestone that built the county now holds its floodwater.
But your house is a separate question
That is a good story and it does not tell you what is in your wall. Elmhurst is one of the few places in this network where we have documented, address-by-address facade materials — and the honest finding is that they are mixed.
From the Emery and Struckmann neighbourhood, the city's oldest concentrated stock, all of these are documented:
- 301 South Arlington, the Brandt House (1915) — concrete foundation, green terra cotta tile roof, and clinker brick with limestone accents
- 281 South Arlington, the William H. Emery Jr. House by Walter Burley Griffin (1902) — anchored by large brick piers at the corners
- 248 South Arlington, the Sloane House by Griffin (1910), National Register listed — stucco cladding, not brick
- 310 South Kenilworth, the Huebner House (1925) — dark brick facade
- 149, 171 and 187 South Arlington — bungalows, described as brick
- 211 South Kenilworth, the Ullman House — a three-storey frame residence
Brick, stucco, stone and timber, on the same few streets. Elmhurst is not a brick town, and no source documents an aggregate facade breakdown for the city as a whole. Anyone who tells you otherwise has not looked.
For a masonry job that is genuinely useful information, because stucco and brick want different trades. A repointing crew is the wrong call on a Griffin stucco house, and knowing that before you book saves everyone a wasted visit.
The most famous building in Elmhurst is not masonry either
The McCormick House by Mies van der Rohe (1952), now part of the Elmhurst Art Museum, is glass and steel on a concrete slab foundation — a lightweight steel frame built on curtain-wall logic.
It is a landmark of twentieth-century architecture and it has nothing whatever to teach anyone about brick or mortar. If a contractor's page names Mies van der Rohe among their Elmhurst credentials, they are citing a steel-and-glass prototype as masonry experience.
The same caution applies, more gently, to the F.B. Henderson House — Wright's only Elmhurst commission, 1901, completed 1905, National Register listed in 2002. It has three brick fireplaces inside. Its exterior wall material we could not document, so we are not going to tell you it is a brick house.
The buildings that are documented masonry
Zachary Taylor Davis — the architect of Comiskey Park (1910) and Wrigley Field (1914) — designed 197 South Arlington in 1915, and it is brick. R. Harold Zook, the Hinsdale architect, designed 231 South Arlington in 1925, described as rustic brick and stonework. E. Norman Brydges designed two Gothic Revival churches, at 116B East Church (1914) and 264 South Kenilworth (1927), with documented stonework and buttresses.
The old stock is shrinking while you read this
About 14.1 percent of ZIP 60126 housing — 2,641 units of 18,673 — was built in 1939 or earlier, and 20.4 percent predates 1950.
Those are snapshot figures, and the snapshot is moving. Average sale price in Elmhurst has gone from 410,000 dollars to 761,000 dollars in five years. One residential block recorded ten teardowns in six years, with two more planned; new construction on those lots runs about 1.5 million dollars. The city has raised demolition permit fees to slow it down.
Because teardowns fall disproportionately on older houses, the number of pre-1940 masonry homes still standing is lower than the survey suggests and falling every year. In January 2026 the city's own Historic Preservation Commission concluded that creating a district in Emery and Struckmann might now be of little significance, because many historic homes on Arlington and Kenilworth avenues have already been torn down.
What the rules actually require, and what the city says about them
Elmhurst adopted a Historic Preservation Ordinance in 2006, codified as Chapter 21. A Certificate of Appropriateness applies to properties that have been through the city's landmark designation process — not to every old house. The filing fee is 100 dollars.
Elmhurst has no historic districts at all, neither local nor National Register. It has five individual National Register listings: Old Main at Elmhurst College (1976), the Henderson House (2002), the John L. Pentecost House (2003), the Sloane House (2016) and Robinwood (2004).
So for the large majority of Elmhurst homeowners there is no preservation review on masonry work at all.
Where the certificate does apply, the standards are the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation, quoted verbatim in the city's own form, and two clauses land directly on masonry work:
“Deteriorated historic features shall be repaired rather than replaced… the new feature shall match the old in design, color, texture, and other visual qualities and, where possible, materials.” And: “Chemical or physical treatments, such as sandblasting, that cause damage to historic materials shall not be used… the gentlest means possible.” That second one is a rule a lot of cheap facade-cleaning quotes would fail.
One live complication worth knowing: in January 2026 the city's own Historic Preservation Commission told a Council committee that the ordinance “does not provide any tangible benefits or incentives for a property that is recognized as a Landmark, but it does impose significant restrictions and burdens,” and pushed for reform along Hinsdale's incentive lines. That is a moving situation, so check the current position before relying on any of it.
The mortar problem
Masonry laid before roughly 1930 sits in lime-based mortar, considerably softer than modern Portland cement mixes. The softness is deliberate: lime mortar is the sacrificial element in the wall, moving and weathering and taking the freeze-thaw damage so the brick does not. When the joint fails you replace the joint, and the brick is untouched.
Repoint with hard Portland cement and it inverts. The joint becomes stronger than the brick, moisture leaves through the brick face instead of the mortar, and carries expansion stress with it. The result is spalling — faces flaking, popping and crumbling. A joint can be redone. A spalled face cannot.
On clinker brick in particular — the hard, irregular, over-fired brick documented at the Brandt House — this is worth extra care, because the whole point of the material is its varied, glassy surface, and it does not tolerate aggressive cleaning or grinding.
Questions worth more than a price per square foot
- Is my facade brick, stucco, stone or frame? In Elmhurst this is a real question with a real answer, and it decides which trade you need.
- Which mortar mix, matched to which brick, at what hardness? Listen for whether the answer references your existing mortar or a standard bag.
- How are you cleaning it? If sandblasting comes up on a pre-1940 facade, that is your answer about the contractor.
- Which joint profile — and does it match what is on the wall now?
- Where is any replacement brick coming from? Matching clinker brick is a genuine sourcing problem.
- Am I individually landmarked? If not, no certificate applies. If so, the Secretary of the Interior's Standards do.
- How is the old joint being removed? An angle grinder in the wrong hands widens joints and scars brick edges permanently.
A mason who cannot answer those is not cheap. He is quoting a different job than the one your building needs.
Signs your masonry needs a look
- Mortar you can rake out with a house key, or that falls away as sand
- Joints noticeably recessed behind the face of the brick
- Stair-step cracking following the joints — usually movement, not weather
- Damp patches or white efflorescence on interior walls
- Spalling — brick faces flaking or popping off. Water is already getting in and freezing
- On a stucco elevation: hairline map cracking, bulging, or hollow-sounding areas — a different problem with a different fix
Any of these on a wall built before 1930 is worth attention before another freeze-thaw season. In a market where the alternative to repair is increasingly demolition, catching it early is worth more here than the repair bill suggests.
Elmhurst and the surrounding area
Elmhurst sits in DuPage County between Oak Brook and Addison, close enough to the county line that it spans into Cook. If yours is a greystone, a landmark facade or a full estate elevation, start with our greystone, landmark and estate work, compare masonry in Hinsdale to the south, or browse every area we serve across Chicagoland.
Questions Elmhurst owners ask
Is Elmhurst a brick town?
No, and Elmhurst is one of the few places where we can show that rather than just decline to guess. Facade materials are documented address by address in the Emery and Struckmann neighbourhood, the city's oldest concentrated stock, and the answer is genuinely mixed. The Brandt House at 301 South Arlington is clinker brick with limestone accents. The Emery Jr. House at 281 South Arlington has large brick piers at the corners. But the Sloane House at 248 South Arlington, National Register listed, is stucco, not brick. The Ullman House at 211 South Kenilworth is a three-storey frame residence. Brick, stucco, stone and timber all appear on the same few streets. No source documents an aggregate facade breakdown for the city as a whole, so anyone quoting you a percentage has invented it.
Is the McCormick House a good example of Elmhurst masonry?
No, and it is the fastest way to check whether someone knows the city. The McCormick House by Mies van der Rohe, built 1952 and now part of the Elmhurst Art Museum, is composed of glass and steel on a concrete slab foundation, with a lightweight steel frame and curtain-wall logic. It is a landmark of twentieth-century architecture and has nothing to teach anyone about brick or mortar. A similar caution applies to the F.B. Henderson House, Frank Lloyd Wright's only Elmhurst commission from 1901, completed 1905 and National Register listed in 2002: it has three brick fireplaces inside, but its exterior wall material was not documented in the sources we could access, so we will not call it a brick house.
What happened to the Elmhurst quarry?
It became a flood reservoir. Limestone was discovered near the surface in 1883 while someone was drilling a well, and the Elmhurst-Chicago Stone Company quarried the site for 109 years, until 1992, starting from an original 11-acre pit. The company's own history records the stone going into Chicago and Northwestern Railroad roadbeds, state highways and public buildings in and around DuPage County, with early dimension stone sold to builders for foundations and walls, so unlike some suburban brick and stone operations the material genuinely was used locally. DuPage County bought the site in 1992 for 64 million dollars and opened it in 1996 as a stormwater and flood control reservoir holding 2.7 billion gallons, with two connected lobes at 120 and 220 feet deep and six nine-foot submersible pumps. It activates about four times a year, and a full drain and aeration cycle takes roughly 72 days.
Do I need a Certificate of Appropriateness to tuckpoint in Elmhurst?
Only if your property has been individually designated a landmark through the city's process. Elmhurst adopted its Historic Preservation Ordinance in 2006, codified as Chapter 21, and the Certificate of Appropriateness application is framed around landmark information, requiring a description of how an alteration or demolition affects a landmark or historic district. The filing fee is 100 dollars. Since Elmhurst has no historic districts at all, local or National Register, and only five individually listed National Register properties, the large majority of Elmhurst homeowners face no preservation review on masonry work whatsoever. National Register listing on its own does not create an obligation either; only local designation does.
What do the standards say about cleaning and repairing masonry?
Where a certificate does apply, the standards used are the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation, quoted verbatim in the city's own application form, and two clauses land directly on masonry work. First: deteriorated historic features shall be repaired rather than replaced, and where replacement is necessary the new feature shall match the old in design, color, texture, and other visual qualities and, where possible, materials. Second, and this one rules out a lot of cheap facade quotes: chemical or physical treatments, such as sandblasting, that cause damage to historic materials shall not be used, and surface cleaning shall be undertaken using the gentlest means possible. Even on an unregulated property, that second clause is good technical advice for any pre-1940 wall.
How old is Elmhurst's housing, and is that changing?
About 14.1 percent of ZIP 60126 housing was built in 1939 or earlier, which is 2,641 units out of 18,673, and 20.4 percent predates 1950, with 41.2 percent before 1960. Those figures are a snapshot and the snapshot is moving fast. Average sale price has gone from 410,000 dollars to 761,000 dollars in five years, one residential block recorded ten teardowns in six years with two more planned, and new construction on those lots runs about 1.5 million dollars. The city has raised demolition permit fees in response. Because teardowns fall disproportionately on older housing, the number of pre-1940 masonry homes still standing is lower than the survey suggests. In January 2026 the city's own Historic Preservation Commission concluded that forming a district in the Emery and Struckmann neighbourhood might now be of little significance, because many historic homes on Arlington and Kenilworth avenues have already been torn down.
Does my Elmhurst house need different mortar than a modern one?
If it went up before roughly 1930, almost certainly yes. Masonry from that era was laid in lime-based mortar, softer than modern Portland cement mixes, and the softness is the design rather than a defect. Lime mortar is the sacrificial element in the wall: it moves, weathers and takes the freeze-thaw damage so the brick does not, and when the joint fails you replace the joint. Repoint with hard Portland cement and it reverses, so moisture leaves through the brick face instead of the mortar and carries expansion stress with it, producing spalling that cannot be undone. On clinker brick specifically, the hard irregular over-fired brick documented at the Brandt House, take extra care: the varied glassy surface is the entire point of the material, and it does not tolerate aggressive cleaning or grinding.
Does Elmhurst have a historic district?
No, none at all, neither local nor National Register. What it has is five individually listed National Register properties: Hauptgebaude, also known as Elmhurst College Old Main, at 190 Prospect Street, listed 1976; the F.B. Henderson House at 301 South Kenilworth, 2002; the John L. Pentecost House at 259 Cottage Hill Avenue, 2003; the William and Jennette Sloane House at 248 South Arlington Avenue, 2016; and Robinwood at 208 South Arlington, 2004. The Emery and Struckmann neighbourhood, bounded by York Street, Arlington Avenue, St. Charles Road and Marion Street, has 59 homes and 3 churches all built 1930 or earlier, four homes on the National Register and thirteen structures in the state-level Illinois Historic Landmarks Survey, but that survey is non-regulatory and the neighbourhood is not a formally designated district.
How often does brick need tuckpointing in Elmhurst?
Brick in this climate generally runs 25 to 30 years between repointings, but that is an average rather than a schedule, and exposure decides it. Elmhurst has no lake frontage and no ravines, so the variables are orientation and street exposure: a south and west elevation takes the driven rain, a chimney above the roofline takes everything, and a wall on a busy arterial takes traffic spray and road salt that a quiet block never sees. Chimneys and the steel lintels above windows and doors usually want attention before the field brick does. If your elevation is stucco rather than brick, the failure signs are different too, showing up as hairline map cracking, bulging or hollow-sounding areas rather than open joints. Any mason quoting a whole-house number without walking every elevation is guessing.
Is MasonryPros.us a masonry contractor?
No. MasonryPros.us is a free matching service operated by Media Express LLC, a Chicago digital agency founded in 1995. We do not perform masonry work and we have no office in Elmhurst. You describe the job once, and we match you with local contractors who do that specific type of work. There is no obligation to hire.