Three years after architecture enthusiasts pointed to its historic character, a neighborhood in south Evanston could become the fourth area of city to be granted national preservation status as early as this spring.

One local activist described the neighborhood as “the best-kept secret in town.”

Area residents applied to the Springfield-based Illinois Historic Preservation Agency in July for a nomination to the National Register of Historic Places, which is run by the National Park Service. Such a designation would give residents of the district a number of financial incentives for home restoration work.

Called the Oakton Historic District, the neighborhood would be bounded by Oakton and Howard streets and Ridge and Asbury avenues. Activists have spent the past few years completing the nomination application, said Jack Weiss, who co-sponsored the document.

“Applying for a historic district is a long, tedious process,” he said. “It took a lot of research and a lot of time.”

The area includes homes that were built in the 1920s in several architectural styles, said Barbara Gardner, another co-sponsor of the application who praises the neighborhood’s “secret” allure.

Half the houses are Chicago-style bungalows, she said, and there is no other neighborhood in Evanston that has such a dense population of historic homes.

Tracey Sculle, the survey and National Register coordinator for the Illinois agency, said the Evanston district is “a good candidate” for the designation.

“It’s a nice collection of residential houses that have evolved over time,” Sculle said. “It’s tight and there hasn’t been a loss of housing, so it’s a nice residential neighborhood showing the evolution of architectural styles over time.”

The Illinois agency will review the application at a December board meeting and decide whether to officially grant the nomination. The agency sent a letter in mid-September to the city offering Evanston City Council a chance to comment on the proposal before the December meeting.

If the Illinois agency approves the nomination, the request would then be sent to Washington, D.C., for final approval.

A historic district would offer property owners several key financial benefits. To make it easier for homeowners to rehabilitate their homes and maintain the historic feel, residents would be able to take advantage of an eight-year property tax freeze if they do any construction work.

“If someone bought a house in bad shape and wanted to restore it they would be eligible for the tax freeze,” Gardner said. “That’s the primary (benefit) homeowners can take advantage of.”

The nomination request comes three years after a slew of community meetings where some residents voiced concerns that a historic designation would limit their ability to improve their homes. But Weiss said that a National Register district — different from a local historic district — poses “no constraints on property owners.”

“We didn’t feel that we needed to get the approval of our neighbors to do it,” he said. “We felt in the beginning there was a general approval of the concept.”

Gardner said that she believed most local residents approved of the plan. The main thrust of the National Register movement, she said, is just to bring attention to the historic nature of the neighborhood.

“There is not a neighborhood anywhere in town that has the look and feel that this one does,” she said. “I think it is deserving of recognition.”

Reach Mike Cherney at [email protected].