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History of Wildwood Park
Wildwood Park is an outstanding example of a residential suburban development that introduced important trends and design principles regionally and locally, and was particularly influential as a prototype for subsequent design in Northeastern Indiana, as it introduced curvilinear design, deed restrictions, and an architectural control committee. The District is an intact example of an early Automobile Suburb, with interrelated and associated residential subdivision and parkway.
The Wildwood Park Historic District includes a range of high-style homes with a high-degree of architectural detail. These homes are high quality; most of them are unique, architect-designed homes. The subdivision was the first planned community in northeastern Indiana to include deed restrictions that gave Wildwood Company the exclusive right to approve the architectural worthiness of the proposed residence. After the Wildwood Park Company was dissolved in the 1940s, the Wildwood Park Neighborhood Association took over many of its functions, including the continuation of an Architectural Review committee. Houses of the same high architectural caliber, and approved by the Wildwood Architectural Review committee, continued to be built in Wildwood Park after 1960.
The houses in Wildwood Park are single-family detached homes on large lots, with a variety of massing types. Principal architectural styles are Craftsman, Colonial Revival, Tudor Revival, American Small House, and Ranch. Unusual examples of French Eclectic, Art Moderne, Wrightian, and American International are found as well. Materials include wood, stucco, and brick, and many of the houses were architect designed. Principal architects and homebuilders included Joel Roberts Ninde and Grace E. Crosby, A.M. Strauss, Guy Mahurin, Pohlmeyer and Pohlmeyer, John Worthman, and Edwin Gibson.
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