LINCOLN PARK
LIST PRICE: $2.550 million
SALE PRICE: $2.265 million

While many high-end homes have been lingering on the market for months and, in some cases, years, this 19th-century brownstone in Lincoln Park sold in March after three weeks. “My sellers were realistic and wanted it priced reasonably—so we did and it sold,” says Suzanne Gignilliat, an agent with Koenig & Strey Real Living. The new owner, R. Stratford Shields, a banking executive at Morgan Stanley, declined to comment.

The sellers, identified by the Cook County Recorder of Deeds as Jeffrey and Sara Fink, had bought the home in 1996 for $1,147,500. They updated the place throughout, fully renovating the four-plus baths and installing a new kitchen and mechanical systems. The house dates to 1888, and its first owner, Gignilliat says, was a master millworker whose handicraft still embellishes much of the interior of the three-story, 13-room home. The stained glass windows and pocket doors are also still intact. “All the vintage things you would want in an old house are there—and where you need it updated, it’s been done,” Gignilliat says.

The home sits on a relatively wide lot—30 feet—nestled along the edge of the DePaul University campus. Its location gives the feeling of residing in a quiet enclave, but Halsted Street’s lively shopping and dining options are less than a block away.

Photograph: Todd Urban