On the Market

The Queen of Old Irving Park

List Price: $1.049 million
The Property: She’s the queen of Old Irving Park, a Queen Anne–style house built in 1889 as a model home for what was to be an entire village of Queen Annes. Her crown jewels are the numerous stained-glass windows in the main living rooms and bedrooms—each one a surprisingly modern and asymmetrical design.

The house commands a kingly lot—65 feet wide by 165 deep, positively huge for a city home. That makes for a lot of light inside the house, as well as big front and rear porches and a backyard garden. It also allows for an added side garage, with doors that fold open and shut thanks to a still-sharp motor from 1928.

Inside, the house is elaborately detailed—especially on the first floor’s foyer, dining room, office, and two parlors—with inlay patterns in the wood floors, period-appropriate wallpapers, and intricate wood spindle-work in some doorways. Most of the lower half of the staircase was removed when the house was converted to apartments in the middle of the 20th century, but the homeowner who later restored the house meticulously re-created the stairway using the upper half as a template.

The kitchen opens onto a large rear addition and, as the sellers’ agent, Beth Allen Tiernan, notes, could easily be expanded out into that area while leaving space for a family room, media room, or other uses. A onetime side porch has been enclosed. The second floor has two full baths and four bedrooms, including a master that opens into a turret.

Sharon Graham and Terry McGuire bought the house, fully restored, in 2000; they added a wine cellar, finished the basement, and replaced the roof. They are now planning a move to California. “You don’t live here forever,” says McGuire, a self-employed importer. “You pass it on to somebody else, and you want to make sure it’s well cared for.” As you will see from the video, one of the assets they will pass along are the countless juicy raspberries out back.

Price Points: The home went on the market in early June at its present price. Old Irving Park is a thoroughly mixed housing market, with small rental apartments and condos, as well as new and old houses at assorted levels of upkeep.

Listing Agent: Beth Allen Tiernan of Allen Tiernan Real Estate; 312-961-6586 or beth@allentiernan.com

Video: Ezekiel C. Binion

Posted in On the Market | Permalink

 E-Mail  Print