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Flori Blondeel, a florist in Oak Park, commissioned these three houses in 1913 as a speculative venture. Blondeel owned a plot of land at the intersection of Chicago Avenue at Elmwood. The three lots were originally to face Chicago Ave. where the frontage was 175 feet. Van Bergen decided not to face them on busy Chicago Avenue, but instead, on the (approximately)150 foot Elmwood side.
Van Bergen wrote in a letter to the architectural historian, H. Allen Brooks, "...my three little houses on Elmwood Ave., in Oak Park. I had the problem of the Chicago Ave. street car tracks to the north and the row of tall houses to the south. I had to develop this group so they would not be swamped by their neighbors."
The first house at 426 Elmwood was completed by September, 1913 by one builder before the next two houses were built together, by another builder, starting in March, 1914.
The second two houses (at 432 N. Elmwood and 436 N. Elmwood) were then situated so that all three form a symmetrical grouping with the two outside houses - which are the same but reversed in plan - framing the center house which is a different "square" plan.
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