Masonry & Tuckpointing in Hinsdale, Illinois
Hinsdale has torn down about half the houses it started with. That is precisely why the old brick still standing is worth keeping.
Half the town is already gone
Most local masonry pages open by telling you the village is historic. Hinsdale's real story is the opposite, and it is far more interesting.
Since the 1990s, Hinsdale has lost about half its original housing stock to teardowns — from a base of roughly 5,500 single-family homes. That figure is the village Historic Preservation Commission's own estimate. By 2022, one in every four houses in Hinsdale had been torn down and rebuilt since 2000.
The village has been counting since 1987, when the baseline was 42 demolitions. Teardowns often topped 100 a year. Between 2017 and 2021 the annual average was 35.
Then it slowed. Hinsdale introduced an incentive programme in 2022 — property tax rebates, fee waivers, matching grants up to 10,000 dollars, on a budget of 50,000 dollars in 2024. Demolitions fell to 29 in 2022 and 17 in 2023, the lowest on record.
Which is exactly why the old brick matters
Roughly 14.9 to 15 percent of ZIP 60521 housing was built in 1939 or earlier — 986 units out of 6,597 — and about 17.7 percent predates 1950.
Read carelessly, that looks like a modest historic share and an argument that Hinsdale is not really an old town. Read against the teardown numbers, it says something quite different.
That share is small because half of it was demolished. The pre-1940 masonry still standing in Hinsdale is not a large stock in slow decline. It is a shrinking remainder, and every year some of it stops existing.
We think that reframes the maintenance question honestly. Repointing a 1905 Hinsdale house is not routine upkeep on a common asset. In this village it is the alternative to the thing that has happened to half the houses around it.
One caveat on the numbers, because we would rather flag it than bury it: the median year built for the ZIP is reported as 1981 by a secondary aggregator, and we treat that as directional only rather than a figure to build an argument on.
The rules, and one thing we could not confirm
Hinsdale passed a Historic Preservation Ordinance in April 2000, codified in Title 14 of the Village Code, governing demolition and alteration of designated landmarks and of structures in designated historic districts.
A Certificate of Appropriateness is required through the Historic Preservation Commission for:
- Individually landmarked properties, regardless of where they sit in the village
- Properties within the Robbins Park Historic District
The named triggers are demolition, relocation, removal of an existing residence, or construction of a new residence. Since 2024 a preliminary application and a design review team meeting are required before the COA application itself. If a certificate is denied, the appeal goes to a Village Board vote within 60 days.
Here is what we could not establish, and we are not going to paper over it. Whether routine tuckpointing or repointing specifically triggers Certificate of Appropriateness review, or is exempt as ordinary repair, could not be verified — the primary ordinance text was not accessible to us. We are not going to tell you that you need a certificate to repoint, and we are not going to tell you that you do not. Ask the village before you schedule.
Worth knowing too: the Commission has publicly said its own process “has no teeth in stopping demolitions.” At the end of the review period a homeowner can proceed regardless of the recommendation. That is a candid admission from the body itself, and it explains why the village turned to financial incentives instead.
Which Hinsdale you own
- Robbins Park Historic District — National Register listed November 26, 2008, reference 08001098, bounded by Chicago Avenue, 8th Street, County Line Road and Garfield Street. 368 buildings, 232 contributing. This district is also locally regulated, which is what actually triggers the certificate requirement.
- Downtown Hinsdale Historic District — National Register listed May 30, 2006, reference 06000011, roughly bounded by Maple, Lincoln, Garfield and Second Streets; 73 buildings plus a park. Available sources do not confirm this one as a locally designated district, so we do not claim it carries a certificate obligation.
- Individually landmarked properties — covered wherever they are.
- The Historic Overlay District (September 2022) — 79 homes approved as historically significant in 16 months. This is an incentive programme, not a regulatory district, and is separate from the landmark and certificate system.
- Everything else — not covered by the certificate process.
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: it moves, it weathers, it takes the freeze-thaw damage, and the brick does not. When the joint fails you replace the joint, and the brick is untouched.
Repoint with hard Portland cement and the relationship inverts. The joint becomes stronger than the brick around it, and 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 and crumbling. A joint can be redone. A spalled face cannot, because that brick is no longer manufactured.
In a village where half the comparable houses have already been demolished, a wrong mortar specification does more than damage a wall. It weakens the case for the house continuing to exist.
The masonry that is documented
The village states that the majority of downtown Hinsdale commercial buildings are of some type of masonry construction. That is a documented statement about the commercial core, not about houses, and we are keeping the distinction.
The single best-documented building is the William Day Gates House of 1894, known as the Terra Cotta House, by architects Jenney and Mundie. Its walls are double brick covered in terra cotta — a genuinely unusual assembly and a real masonry reference.
R. Harold Zook designed roughly 34 homes and commercial buildings in Hinsdale, and the Hinsdale Historical Society maintains his home and studio. We could not pin his material palette to a quoted primary source, so we are not going to tell you his houses are brick.
What we are not going to tell you
We are not going to tell you what your walls are made of.
No source documents an aggregate brick or stone facade percentage for Hinsdale's housing stock. The Census does not collect exterior wall material at any geography. Only the downtown commercial district and specific named houses are documented as masonry, and generalising from those to the residential stock would be a guess dressed as expertise.
So, conditionally: if your house is brick or stone and sits in the pre-1940 share, it is well inside the window where tuckpointing, chimney and lintel work matter — and in this village it belongs to a category that has been halved in thirty years. A mason in front of the wall can tell you what you have in a minute.
Questions worth more than a price per square foot
- Am I in Robbins Park, individually landmarked, or neither? That decides whether the certificate process is even in the conversation.
- Have you asked the village whether this specific scope needs a certificate? We could not confirm where tuckpointing falls, and neither should your contractor assume.
- 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 any replacement brick coming from? Matching an 1890s brick is a sourcing problem, not a same-day purchase.
- 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.
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 terra cotta or glazed facade, cracked or drummy units — these need a specialist, not a general repointing crew
Any of these on a wall built before 1930 is worth attention before another freeze-thaw season. In Hinsdale there is a second reason to act early: deferred maintenance on an older house here has a way of turning into a demolition permit.
Hinsdale and the surrounding area
Hinsdale sits in the western suburbs alongside Western Springs and La Grange, a cluster with an unusual concentration of pre-1940 building stock and, in Hinsdale's case, unusual pressure on it. If yours is a greystone, a landmark facade or a full estate elevation, start with our greystone, landmark and estate work, compare masonry in Western Springs or masonry in La Grange, or browse every area we serve across Chicagoland.
Questions Hinsdale owners ask
Is it true that half of Hinsdale has been torn down?
Roughly, yes, and the figure comes from the village's own Historic Preservation Commission. Since the 1990s Hinsdale has lost about half its original housing stock to teardowns, from a base of around 5,500 single-family homes. By 2022, one in every four houses in the village had been torn down and rebuilt since 2000. The village has counted demolitions since 1987, when the baseline was 42; teardowns often topped 100 a year, and between 2017 and 2021 the annual average was 35. The trend has reversed recently: after a 2022 incentive programme offering property tax rebates, fee waivers and matching grants of up to 10,000 dollars, demolitions fell to 29 in 2022 and 17 in 2023, the lowest on record.
Do I need a Certificate of Appropriateness to tuckpoint in Hinsdale?
We do not know, and we are not going to guess. Hinsdale's Historic Preservation Ordinance, passed in April 2000 and codified in Title 14, requires a Certificate of Appropriateness for individually landmarked properties regardless of location and for properties within the Robbins Park Historic District. The triggers named in the sources we could access are demolition, relocation, removal of an existing residence, and construction of a new residence. Whether routine masonry maintenance such as tuckpointing counts as a covered alteration or is exempt as ordinary repair is not something we could verify, because the primary ordinance text was not accessible to us. So ask the village before you schedule. Any contractor who tells you confidently either way, without having checked, is guessing on your behalf.
How old is Hinsdale's housing stock?
About 14.9 to 15 percent of ZIP 60521 housing was built in 1939 or earlier, which is 986 units out of 6,597, and roughly 17.7 percent predates 1950. On its own that looks like a modest historic share, but it should be read alongside the teardown history: that share is small largely because about half the original stock has been demolished since the 1990s. So the pre-1940 masonry still standing is a shrinking remainder rather than a large stable stock. A median year built of 1981 is reported by a secondary aggregator, and we treat that as directional only rather than a figure worth building an argument on.
What is the difference between Robbins Park and the Downtown Hinsdale district?
Regulatory weight, mainly. Robbins Park Historic District was listed on the National Register on November 26, 2008 under reference 08001098, bounded by Chicago Avenue, 8th Street, County Line Road and Garfield Street, with 368 buildings of which 232 are contributing. Crucially, it is also locally regulated, and it is the local designation that triggers the Certificate of Appropriateness requirement. Downtown Hinsdale Historic District was listed on the National Register on May 30, 2006 under reference 06000011, roughly bounded by Maple, Lincoln, Garfield and Second Streets, covering 73 buildings plus a park. Available sources do not confirm it as a locally designated district, so we do not claim it carries the same obligation. There is also a Historic Overlay District launched in September 2022, which approved 79 homes as historically significant within 16 months, but that is an incentive programme rather than a regulatory district.
Can the Historic Preservation Commission stop a demolition?
By its own account, no. The Commission has publicly stated that its process has no teeth in stopping demolitions: at the end of the review period a homeowner can proceed regardless of the Commission's recommendation. We could not find a specific numeric demolition-delay period in any accessible source. That candid admission is a useful piece of context, because it explains why the village shifted its approach in 2022 from review toward financial incentives, and why those incentives appear to have worked where the review process did not.
Does my Hinsdale 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, which is 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. 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, where faces flake and pop off. Mortar can be replaced indefinitely. A spalled face cannot, because that brick is no longer made. In Hinsdale that matters twice over, because visible deterioration on an older house here tends to strengthen the argument for tearing it down.
Are Hinsdale homes brick?
Some visibly are, but no source documents an aggregate brick or stone facade percentage for Hinsdale's housing stock, and the Census does not collect exterior wall material at any geography. What is documented is narrower and we will stick to it: the village states that the majority of downtown Hinsdale commercial buildings are of some type of masonry construction, and specific named houses have documented materials. Generalising from the commercial core to the residential streets would be a guess dressed up as local expertise. If your house is brick or stone and dates from the pre-1940 share, it is well inside the window where tuckpointing, chimney and lintel work matter, and a mason in front of the wall can tell you what you have in about a minute.
What is the best masonry to look at in Hinsdale?
The William Day Gates House of 1894, known as the Terra Cotta House, designed by Jenney and Mundie. Its walls are double brick covered in terra cotta, which is an unusual assembly and a genuine masonry reference rather than a stylistic one. Beyond that, the downtown commercial district is documented by the village as majority masonry construction. R. Harold Zook designed roughly 34 homes and commercial buildings in Hinsdale and the Historical Society maintains his home and studio, but we could not tie his material palette to a quoted primary source, so we are not going to tell you his houses are brick. If your own facade is terra cotta or glazed rather than plain brick, that needs a specialist rather than a general repointing crew.
How often does brick need tuckpointing in Hinsdale?
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. Hinsdale 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 along County Line Road or Garfield Street takes traffic spray and road salt that a quiet block inside Robbins Park never sees. Chimneys and the steel lintels above windows and doors usually want attention before the field brick does. 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 Hinsdale. 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.