Masonry & Tuckpointing in Evanston, Illinois
Nearly half of Evanston was built before 1940 — more than double the Illinois rate. On a landmark, the wrong mortar does not just damage the brick. It can stop your building permit.
In Evanston, the permit is hostage to the mortar
Most towns treat preservation review as a parallel process — annoying, slow, but separate from the permit that actually lets work start. Evanston wires the two together, and it changes how you should approach a masonry job here.
A Certificate of Appropriateness is required for exterior work affecting Evanston landmarks and properties within local historic districts, when a permit is required and when the work is visible from the public way. It covers alteration, construction, relocation and demolition. And the consequential part: building permits are not issued unless a COA is approved — either by the Preservation Commission in a public hearing, or by the Preservation Planner through administrative review.
The Commission is eleven members appointed by the Mayor, all city residents with demonstrated expertise in preservation, architectural restoration, rehabilitation or neighborhood conservation. Three-year terms, two consecutive terms maximum. Evanston has been doing this a while: the Historic Preservation Ordinance dates to 1978, and the city was among the first in Illinois to earn Certified Local Government status, in 1985. Its long-range plan, Preserve 2040, was adopted in December 2022.
The routine-maintenance path — and why matching your mortar pays twice
Inside that framework sits a distinction worth real money. Routine maintenance — defined as repair or replacement where there is no change in the design, materials or general appearance — is deemed to have no effect. No COA is issued for it. You still file an application alongside the permit, describing how the work meets the routine-maintenance criteria, but you are not in front of a hearing.
Read that against what mortar does. Repointing that matches your existing mortar in design, materials and appearance plausibly rides the routine-maintenance path. Repointing that changes the color, the joint profile or the material — a hard grey Portland joint replacing a soft lime one, say — is a visible change in materials and appearance, which is exactly what an alteration is. So in Evanston, matching your mortar is not only the correct repair. It may be the difference between paperwork and a public hearing.
One caveat, stated plainly because you deserve it: the City's COA checklist does not itemize tuckpointing or repointing. It lists construction, demolition, alteration, restoration, additions, windows, doors, roof, fence, garage and landscaping — masonry and mortar are not called out, and the ordinance's definition of "alteration" is not something we could verify. What is above is the documented shape of the process, not a ruling on your address. Call the Preservation Planner at preservation@cityofevanston.org before you commit to a spec.
You may be a landmark and not know it
Evanston has more than 850 registered individual local landmarks — and 430 of them sit outside any local historic district. An ordinary-looking block tells you nothing at all.
It runs the other way too, which is where people get caught:
- Lakeshore Historic District — National Register since September 29, 1980; 774 primary and 557 secondary structures; also locally designated. Review applies.
- Ridge Historic District — National Register since March 3, 1983; 397 primary structures across 153.4 acres, 129 architecturally significant plus 136 contributing; also local. Review applies.
- Northeast Evanston — National Register since August 12, 1999; 546 primary buildings over about 12 blocks. But the local overlay covers only the portion south of Lincoln Street. North of Lincoln, no local review.
- Oakton Historic District — National Register since May 23, 2005; 203 primary buildings, built 1913-1964. Federal only. No local overlay, no COA.
- Women's Christian Temperance Union District — local only, not on the National Register at all.
So two houses on the same street can sit under different rules, and a National Register address may carry no local restriction while an unremarkable one two blocks away does. Ask the City which list you are on before you take quotes, not after a crew is booked.
The mortar problem nobody mentions in the estimate
Roughly 48.5 percent of Evanston's housing units were built in 1939 or earlier — against 23.1 percent statewide. More than double the Illinois rate. Evanston was founded in 1857 and incorporated as a town in 1863; Northwestern University, founded 1851, is older than the town around it. The nickname — the City of Homes — was earned.
Anything here from before roughly 1930 is carrying lime-based mortar, considerably softer than modern Portland cement mixes. That softness is the design. Lime mortar is the sacrificial element in the wall: it moves, it weathers, it takes the freeze-thaw damage — and the brick does not. When the joint fails, you replace the joint. The brick is untouched.
Repoint with hard Portland cement and the relationship inverts. The joint becomes stronger than the masonry around it. Moisture that used to escape through the mortar leaves through the brick face instead, carrying expansion stress with it. The result is spalling — faces flaking, popping, crumbling. A joint can be redone; a spalled face cannot, because that brick is no longer made. And it does not show for two or three years, long after the crew is gone.
What is actually standing here
Evanston is genuinely mixed, and anyone flattening it into a single material is selling you something. The City's own description runs to "an outstanding collection of vernacular working class resources and high-style Victorian and 20th century Period Revival, Prairie, Craftsman, Mid-Century Modern, and Contemporary styles."
The Lakeshore inventory counts Queen Anne 101, Colonial Revival 100, Craftsman 83, Italianate 48 — and documents materials ranging across red brick, blond brick, rusticated granite block, frame and board-and-batten, wood shingle and stucco. Northeast Evanston is mostly 1890 to 1930, chiefly Colonial Revival, Craftsman and Tudor Revival. Ridge runs Italianate, Queen Anne and Prairie School, most of it 1860 to 1930.
A note on "Evanston greystones." You will see that phrase on masonry marketing sites. No authoritative source establishes it — not the City, not the district inventories, not the National Register nominations. Chicago has greystones. Evanston has brick, granite, frame and stucco, in a mix nobody has ever quantified. A contractor who opens with your neighborhood's greystones has not looked at your neighborhood.
The real masonry landmarks are specific and worth knowing. The Charles Gates Dawes House at 225 Greenwood Street — built 1894 for Robert Sheppard, architect H. Edwards Ficken, Chateauesque, a National Historic Landmark and home of the Evanston History Center — carries an apricot-colored brick exterior with elaborate red sandstone ornamentation, and tan Flemish bond brick with cut-stone quoins. That is a wall where a mortar mismatch is visible from the sidewalk and a bond pattern that punishes sloppy repointing. The Grosse Point Light Station at 2601 Sheridan Road, completed 1873, is all brick across every building on the site.
On architects, one correction worth making because it circulates locally: Daniel Burnham lived in Evanston — he moved here in 1882 and bought a six-acre farm at 232 Dempster Street in 1886, demolished in 1938 — but he did not design Evanston's housing stock. The names actually on these houses include Walter Burley Griffin (the Frederick B. Carter Jr. House, 1024 Judson Avenue, 1910), Thomas Tallmadge, a lifelong Evanston resident credited with 25 houses through Tallmadge & Watson — though theirs were mostly stucco with timber trim, not brick — Myron Hunt (the 1899 double house at 1032 and 1034 Michigan Avenue), and Ernest A. Mayo, with 30-plus Lakeshore residences between 1900 and 1919. George W. Maher, who lived in Kenilworth, built Northwestern's Swift Hall of Engineering in 1909.
Questions worth more than a price per square foot
- Which mortar mix, matched to which brick, at what hardness? Listen for whether the answer references your existing mortar or a standard bag.
- Which joint profile — and does it match what is on the wall now?
- Where is the salvage brick coming from if any needs replacing?
- Who is doing the sample panel, and on which elevation?
- How is the old joint being removed? An angle grinder in the wrong hands widens joints and scars brick edges permanently.
- Have you been through an Evanston COA before — and will you document this as routine maintenance or expect a hearing?
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
- Limestone or sandstone that looks sugary or chalky to the touch
- Open joints or a leaning stack on a chimney — chimney repair and rebuilds are where freeze-thaw shows up first
Any of these on a wall built before 1930 is worth attention before another freeze-thaw season. Chicago-area winters do the damage; the mortar just tells you first.
Evanston and the surrounding North Shore
Evanston is the southern anchor of the North Shore, running from the Chicago city line up to Wilmette, and its older stock carries the same mortar problem as the villages above it. If yours is a greystone, a landmark facade or a full estate elevation, start with our greystone, landmark and estate work, compare tuckpointing in Wilmette just north, or browse every area we serve across Chicagoland.
Questions Evanston owners ask
Do I need a Certificate of Appropriateness to tuckpoint in Evanston?
It depends on your property and on what the repointing changes, and the honest answer is that the City's own checklist does not itemize tuckpointing. Here is what is documented. A Certificate of Appropriateness is required for exterior work affecting Evanston landmarks and properties within local historic districts, when a permit is required and when the work is visible from the public way, and building permits are not issued unless a COA is approved. Routine maintenance — repair or replacement with no change in design, materials or general appearance — is deemed to have no effect and gets no COA, though an application still has to be filed with the permit explaining how it qualifies. Repointing that matches your existing mortar plausibly follows that routine-maintenance path; repointing that changes mortar color, joint profile or material would likely read as an alteration and trigger review. Because the ordinance language could not be confirmed, treat this as the shape of the process and call the Preservation Planner at preservation@cityofevanston.org for your specific address.
How do I find out if my Evanston house is a landmark?
Ask the City, and do not assume from your neighborhood. Evanston has more than 850 registered individual local landmarks, and 430 of them are outside any local historic district — so being on an ordinary-looking block tells you nothing. It also runs both ways: the Oakton Historic District is on the National Register but has no local overlay and no COA requirement, and in Northeast Evanston the local overlay covers only the portion south of Lincoln Street. Two houses on the same street can sit under different rules. This is a phone call worth making before you take quotes, not after.
Why is Portland cement mortar a problem on an older Evanston house?
Masonry built before roughly 1930 was laid in lime-based mortar, which is softer than modern Portland cement mixes. Lime mortar is designed to be the sacrificial element — it moves and weathers so the brick does not. A hard Portland cement joint reverses that. It traps moisture and transfers stress into the brick or stone face, so instead of a worn joint you get spalling brick. Mortar can be replaced. A spalled face cannot, because that brick is no longer manufactured. In Evanston there is a second edge to it: a hard grey joint on a soft historic wall is also a visible change in materials and appearance, which is exactly the thing that turns routine maintenance into a reviewable alteration.
How old is Evanston's housing stock?
Genuinely old, and this is the strongest such number on the North Shore. Roughly 48.5 percent of Evanston housing units were built in 1939 or earlier, against 23.1 percent statewide — more than double the Illinois rate. About 38.8 percent dates from 1940 to 1979 and 12.6 percent from 1980 on. Evanston was founded in 1857 and incorporated as a town in 1863, and Northwestern University predates the town itself, founded in 1851. The city's nickname, the City of Homes, is not marketing. Note that the housing figures come from American Community Survey 2007-2011 data, so treat them as directional rather than current.
Does Evanston have greystones?
Not that any authoritative source establishes, and you should be wary of contractors who say otherwise. No primary source describes Evanston greystones or Chicago-style greystone two-flats; the pages making that claim are masonry marketing sites. What the Lakeshore district inventory actually documents is red brick, blond brick, rusticated granite block, frame and board-and-batten, wood shingle and stucco — a genuinely mixed city, not a greystone one. The real masonry landmarks are things like the Charles Gates Dawes House at 225 Greenwood Street, built in 1894, with an apricot-colored brick exterior, red sandstone ornamentation and tan Flemish bond brick with cut-stone quoins, and the Grosse Point Light Station of 1873, whose site buildings are all brick.
How long does Evanston's preservation review take?
Plan around the calendar, because it is unforgiving. The Preservation Commission has eleven members appointed by the Mayor and meets on the second Tuesday of each month, and a completed Certificate of Appropriateness application is due 15 business days beforehand. Miss that deadline and the next hearing is a month later, which in Chicago-area masonry can mean the difference between repointing this season and watching another freeze-thaw cycle work on an open joint. Work that qualifies as routine maintenance can go through administrative review by the Preservation Planner instead, which is the faster path — another reason matching your existing mortar is worth more than it costs.
How often does brick need tuckpointing in Evanston?
Brick and stone in this climate generally runs 25 to 30 years between repointings, but that is an average, not a schedule. Exposure decides it. An elevation facing the lake takes wind-driven rain and freeze-thaw that a sheltered rear wall never sees, so the same house can need work on one face two decades before another. Evanston's older stock spans everything from lakefront frontage to dense inland blocks, and a corner lot on Ridge behaves differently from a sheltered mid-block wall. Any mason quoting a whole-house number without walking every elevation is guessing.
How do I know if a mason is right for a historic Evanston facade?
Ask which mortar mix, matched to which brick, at what hardness — and listen for whether the answer references your existing mortar or a standard bag. Ask about the joint profile, where salvage brick would come from if any needs replacing, and who does the sample panel and on which elevation. In Evanston, add one more: ask whether they have been through a Certificate of Appropriateness before, and whether they will document the work as routine maintenance or expect a hearing. A mason who has done landmark work here will have an answer ready. A mason who answers only with a price per square foot is quoting a different job than the one your house needs.
What does tuckpointing cost in Evanston?
Nobody can price a masonry job honestly without seeing the wall. Cost is driven by how much of the joint has failed, height and access, whether scaffolding or a lift is needed, how much brick or stone needs replacing, whether the mortar has to be custom-matched, and whether preservation review applies. A Flemish bond facade with cut-stone detail needing matched lime mortar and salvage brick is a different job from a straightforward rear elevation. Get quotes from masons who have seen the actual wall.
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 Evanston. 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.
What are the warning signs my Evanston masonry needs attention?
Mortar you can rake out with a house key or that falls away as sand. Joints recessed noticeably behind the face of the brick. Stair-step cracking, which usually follows the joints and points at movement rather than weather. Damp patches or white efflorescence on interior walls. Brick faces flaking or popping off — that is spalling, and it means water is already getting in and freezing. On a limestone or sandstone element, a sugary or chalky surface. Any of these on a wall built before 1930 is worth a look before another freeze-thaw season.