LINCOLN PARK
LIST PRICE: $4,799,000
SALE PRICE: $4,300,000
The builder Matthew Ehrhard HAD long admired the landmark home at 1406 North Astor Street, which was designed by David Adler in 1922 for Joseph T. Ryerson Jr. “It’s very stately and well proportioned,” says Ehrhard, whose company, Hewitt Horn, constructs high-end homes.
In 2006, when preparing to build his own house on an extra-wide lot in Lincoln Park, Ehrhard decided to pay homage to the Ryerson place. “I’m a classicist like [Adler],” he says, “but I tend to go a little more modern.” While the Ryerson house is four stories tall, Ehrhard’s is three, but it picks up many details from the earlier residence: the etched limestone façade, the deep striations on the first floor, the arched windows on the second, and the tall mansard roof.
The interior also has a vintage feel, with the main rooms above the ground-level entry area. “I wanted it to feel like a prewar co-op, where you’re living one floor above the trees,” Ehrhard says. In a nod to today’s lifestyle, he built a large garage-top deck directly behind the main rooms. Four bedrooms occupy the third floor—another advantage to having a 31-foot-wide lot.
Because Ehrhard and his wife, Jennifer, wanted to move farther north (closer to their children’s school), they sold the home in late April to buyers not yet named in public records. Meredith Meserow of Koenig & Strey Real Living oversaw the sale.
Photograph: Todd Urban