I had an opportunity to interview Tim O’Brien today on the phone about an interesting community of small homes in Geneva, Illinois.

Right click here and open in a new window to hear the interview.

The audio is 6 minutes and 1.4 MB in size.

Tim sent me some photos by e-mail. Click here to see the photos.

From Tim’s e-mail: “I met you a few weeks back at Radish Magazine Healthy Living Fair. I told you at that time about some house's in Geneva, Illinois. I met with one of the residents of the community. The land is owned by ‘The Good Templar's Association’ they are a religious organization, not connected to the Knight Templar's, but maybe in the past they were. ... People are allowed to build what they call Lodges, Once they join and commit themselves to living a alcohol free lifestyle for life. The history of this association is that they all originally immigrated from Sweden in the 1890's and people who join are allowed to build these lodges and pay only a monthly fee for for maintenance of the grounds and such. They have community rest rooms and shower facilities. They heat with wood and natural gas tanks, no running water. It's a quiet nice place, very peaceful and the people are friendly. ... this could be a good source on how to make small housing communities possible. Here are a few pictures...”

* The house photos on this page are by Tim O’Brien. Contact him for any questions about usage. tim_obrien0351 @ yahoo.com (no spaces)