"Home Movies" takes you inside this pristine, historic home on Chicago's tres chic Astor Street. Gold Coast mansion seeks loving LTR. More than a century old, but friends say it looks half its age. Enjoys breezy evenings on the third floor terrace and cozy evenings by any of the seven gas-log fireplaces. Looking for buyer who appreciates history and charm. Let's meet at 1400 N. Astor St.; bring $6.9 million.
The former home of Dorothy Wrigley Offield and her husband, patent attorney James Offield, on tony North Astor, is for sale for $6.9 million.
The owners have spent more than a year adding two bathrooms and putting in all new mechanicals. That's on top of all of the polishing, wallpaper-stripping and repainting to update this classic home. But now the owners have decided to sell rather than move in.
"When they bought it in 2005, it was tired and very dark," says listing agent Mary Bennett, a Realtor with Koenig & Strey GMAC Real Estate."And it didn't have enough bathrooms, only 5.5. That's not enough for a house this size."
Now the mansion sparkles with new windows, and its elegant, inlaid wood flooring has been polished to a glow.
The Richardsonian Romanesque, red pressed-brick home was designed by architect Henry Ives Cobb and built in 1886 for lawyer Perry H. Smith Jr. It was the first Astor Street home north of Schiller Street at the time.
Today, the block is full of elegant homes, and 1400 is hardly the only one for sale. In the past year, eight or more homes have been for sale along the four-block street.
"It may just be coincidence," says Bill Tyre, manager of programs of the Charnley-Persky House Museum and a conductor of neighborhood tours. "But there have been a tremendous number of for sales on Astor Street all of the sudden."
The Wrigley-Offield home is noteworthy for its historic aspects, its architectural features and its condition.
"Its most prominent feature (is) the dramatic stone arch over the main entry, supported by clustered columns," says Tyre."The Romanesque style was very popular at this time, largely due to Boston architect Henry Hobson Richardson," for whom the style was named.
The wood-paneled dining room also has a carved wood inglenook, with little carved benches on either side of the fireplace.
"A lot of people think that Frank Lloyd Wright invented these," said Tyre. "But he really didn't and this is proof that they were being done before him."
Through the years, Astor Street was a regular "Who's Who" of wealthy Chicago -- residents have included steel magnate Joseph Ryerson, Chicago Mayor Carter Harrison Jr., jewelry store heir Charles D. Peacock Jr., Tribune editor Robert Patterson, reaper manufacturer Cyrus McCormick Jr., lumber magnate William Goodman (benefactor of the Goodman Theater) and many others.
William Wrigley Jr. lived across the street, so in around 1920 it must have made sense to Dorothy and her husband to purchase the 1400 property. They lived there 60 years, roughly half the life of the home. Perhaps because they lived there through World War II, the home never suffered the fate of many others on Astor -- being divided into apartments.
"Large houses were considered out of fashion and too large to maintain," Tyre says, and the wartime housing shortage was the last straw.
Despite its storied past and magnificent architecture, the home had issues when the Offields sold it in 1983. Primarily, its kitchen was still in the basement, which was typical of homes from that era, because basement kitchens kept heat out of the living areas, and servants could simply send up food by dumbwaiter to the elegant dining room. The home also had no elevator.
In 1991, a sensitive addition was designed by Hammond, Beeby & Babka, Tyre says, to add about 3,000 square feet, including a main floor kitchen, a master suite and a third-floor terrace with gazebo. The addition blends well with the original space, and a casual observer would never realize they were built over 100 years apart.
Today, the home has four bedrooms on the second floor, two more bedrooms and a huge den on the third; and a suite of rooms on the top floor that could be used as servant or nanny quarters, children's play space or an in-home office. Most of the bedrooms have adjoining bathrooms and walk-in closets.
For those who prefer to exercise at the gym and not on the stairs, a new elevator serves all five levels. The home also has a second parlor/living room on the main floor, a family room off the kitchen, a full basement with recreation room and lots of storage space, two staircases and a two-car garage. In short, it goes on and on for more than 10,000 square feet.
In addition to its generous proportions, the home also claims some magnificent woodwork, all in excellent condition. Under its arching stone entranceway, oak doors, wide enough to accommodate two gentle ladies in hoop skirts (if they ever come back into style) greet visitors with egg and dart carved molding.
Carved mahogany paneling lines most of the first-floor rooms, built-in mahogany shelves and china cabinets grace the study, or gentlemen's parlor, carved balustrades line the wooden staircase all the way up and all the fireplaces are cloaked in marble.
"The amazing thing about this house is that it is in such good shape," Bennett says. "It's been very well cared for."
Since the home went on the market nine months ago, most of the potential buyers have been single, she said. They tend to be young entrepreneurs in hot fields such as hedge funds or energy. One guy said he might move his cook in to the top floor suite of rooms. One family had three young children who might love the top floor's round, turret room with its child-sized entrance doorway. But since December 2006, no one has closed the deal.
Still the home will appeal to urbanites, Bennett believes.
"I think people don't want to commute any more," she said. "They are tired of spending their lives in a car, coming in from the suburbs. And they want the prestige of living on Astor."
If that's the case, they won't be alone. While there are numerous properties for sale on the 1400 block, there are also at least a half dozen visible construction projects on the 1400 block alone. The quiet of the leafy side street is interrupted with cacophony of hammers, electric saws and demolition.
That's probably due to the recent turnover of homeowners, says Tyre. "It is common that they renovate after they buy."
