Own a Piece of History in this 1894 Victorian: 1836 W. Addison in North Center
This 5-bedroom Victorian single family home at 1836 W. Addison in North Center came on the market in April 2016, although it had been on the market for a time in 2015.
The listing says it was built in 1894.
It’s on an extra large 45×125 lot with a wrap-around porch and a garage.
The listing also says it has an above ground pool, but it’s not shown in the pictures (darn) and it’s unclear where it would be located if there was one.
The house has many of its vintage features intact including 8-panel doors, cove moldings, stained glass, a decorative wood beamed ceiling in the dining room and what looks like it could be the original first floor fireplace mantel.
The house also has a dormed large attic.
The listing says the house is “Perfect For An Impressive Restoration.”
Listed at $1.35 million, it’s not priced for a teardown.
In this market, with so much new construction in the same neighborhood, are there buyers willing to take on a big renovation project?
Carmen Poplawski at Century 21 Affiliated has the listing. See the pictures here.
1836 W. Addison: 5 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 2240 square feet, 2 car garage
- It’s been in the same family since 1986
- Listed in 2015
- Re-listed in April 2016 for $1.35 million
- Currently still at $1.35 million
- Taxes of $10,678
- Central Air
- Wood burning fireplace
- Bedroom #1: 11×15 (second floor)
- Bedroom #2: 11×12 (second floor)
- Bedroom #3: 11×12 (second floor)
- Bedroom #4: 9×9 (second floor)
- Bedroom #5: 10×11 (second floor)
Nice block/area, perhaps a bit close to the train but super convenient at least. This one has languished for a while now having been severely overpriced, but at this price I think there’s a decent chance it will sell halfway soon. It is quite the project though, and not priced for a teardown at all.
Does this really qualify as a mansion?
At $1.35MM, the leg lamp better come with the house
For this price, I want to be able to walk to the lake in 5 minutes.
I think the pool is small and next to the garage. If you look at google maps, you can zoom way in and there’s what appears to be a deck on the house/south side of the garage and a black thing on the west side of the garage. It’s about the size of the car parked next door, but it doesn’t appear to be a parking pad with a covered car, I think it’s the pool covered up. After seeing that, go look at mapquest, you can’t zoom in as far, but that same spot next to the garage looks kinda swimming pool blue.
The price of this house is ridiculous – as in ridiculously cheap! How much did this house cost to build in 1894? A few thousand, at most? And it’s worth over $1M? with that kind of exponential price inflation, just think what it will be worth 20 years from now!
HD – you know the trope that the 3 most important things in RE are location. In 1894, this location was an outlying neighborhood.
There were no buses or streetcars in the area. The Addison Red Line station a mile away wouldn’t open until 1900 (though the plans were out there in 1894). The Addison Brown line station wouldn’t open until 1907 and wasn’t planned at that time. The early plans for the Ravenswood Branch went down Irving Park, not Roscoe, so the planned closest station would have been 1/2 mile, not 1/2 block when this was built.
The current Metra line had stops at Belmont and Northcenter (pretty sure that was Irving Park), so that was the commuter’s option. Key being, this wasn’t the area it is today. That said, today that house is on a really busy street.
“There were no buses or streetcars in the area.”
By 1894, the electric streetcar on Lincoln was extended up to Irving Park.
I stand corrected, I forgot to check Lincoln, so this was an early TOD 😉 But still it was far out at the time.
I’d say too close to El, given what would be total investment.
No bath pix = 3 gut jobs, right?
Kitchen is below average for an occupied teardown candidate in the area.
With some nearby teardowns having sold for over $20k per front foot, this is overpriced for a teardown, but not *that* much. Best use is condos/apartments.
With enough investment, you could turn it into a mini-version of this other one that can’t sell at ask:
https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/1904-W-Patterson-Ave-60613/home/13387567
“was far out at the time”
Yep, clay pit and pickle farms a lot closer than anything ‘city like’.
according to this (http://www.chicagorailfan.com/rte01019.html), in 1894, Lincoln was electric from Irving to Belmont, horse car from Belmont to Wrightwood, then cable car from Wrightwood to downtown (via Clark). A year later, the horse car was converted to electric, but still a transfer to cable car at Wrightwood until 1906.
This is my kind of house, except of course the price point. And I’ve become more of an Urban Hermit in my old age so I’d probably not want to live in this congested of an area.
Regarding anon’s 1904 W Patterson link:
Holy wallpaper!
sometimes you got to go back…to actually move forward
can i get a lincoln with the lamp?
“For this price, I want to be able to walk to the lake in 5 minutes.”
The area by the lake isn’t where the new rich people are moving.
Southport isn’t by the lake. Neither is Roscoe Village, Wicker Park, Bucktown or Ukrainian Village. That is where they are building the $1 million+ houses.
So “the lake” frankly, isn’t what rich people are looking for anymore.
Nonya, great link. I was just talking yesterday about why there isn’t a crosstown bus on Elston. We need it back.
As for the house, they are selling that wrap around porch and the house comes with it. It’s great in the south when you can use it 10 months out of the year, but not here. And when you can use it, you can view the endless stream of Cubs traffic driving, walking, stumbling by.
“So “the lake” frankly, isn’t what rich people are looking for anymore.”
No, I think that ‘rich people’ are still looking for ‘the lake’, it’s just that there are so few single family homes available, particularly in this price range.
Wanda Vista isn’t having a hard time selling and its pretty close to ‘the lake’
“The area by the lake isn’t where the new rich people are moving.
Southport isn’t by the lake. Neither is Roscoe Village, Wicker Park, Bucktown or Ukrainian Village. That is where they are building the $1 million+ houses.
So “the lake” frankly, isn’t what rich people are looking for anymore.”
$1 million houses, in Chicago, aren’t being built for rich people. And the areas you list above are where there are still opportunities (for builders/investors) to buy lots/tear downs and build $1 million + houses.
who says $1,000,000 is rich? That’s working class – if you have to go to work every day, then you are working class. Riz’s $600k a year HH income is substantial, but he has to work, and $600,000 in absolute peanuts compared to ken Griffin’s $1.7 salary (his ex-wife claims he earns $68,000,000 a MONTH after taxes). Now that’s rich to me. Funny now the physicians earning $600k a year HH income and the household in Oak Lawn earning $60K a year are actually just the same peons compared to the people with REAL wealth. How’s that for perspective.
“$1 million houses, in Chicago, aren’t being built for rich people.”
anonny, you’ve left town.
They aren’t building $1 million houses in these neighborhoods anymore. They are $1.5 million and up. Up, up, up.
If $1.5 million isn’t for the “rich” who is it for?
As I’ve documented, in the grand scheme of the entire Chicagoland area, there are very few of these homes actually selling. But if you happen to live in North Center and see 20 of them going up (as they are right now), suddenly it seems that EVERYONE lives in a house like this when it’s really just a super select, small group of people.
How many times do we have to keep going over the wealth issue?
People in Bartlett have no clue what it’s like to live (and shop/eat) in Southport with its $3 million homes. They are middle class. Concerned about how they’re going to retire AND pay for their kids college even though their household income is $90,000 a year.
And if you honestly think builders are able to buy a “teardown” in Roscoe Village and build only a $1 million house on it- you are in dreamland. The teardowns are $600,000 to $800,000 in that neighborhood. That’s why the houses are now being listed at $1.5 to $2.5+ million.
“Wanda Vista isn’t having a hard time selling and its pretty close to ‘the lake’”
Those poor Chinese buyers. They have no idea what they’re getting into here in Chicago. They don’t know that our real estate isn’t like NY, SF, LA and Vancouver. They don’t know that there is a glut of high end condos now (and it’s only going to get worse.)
I’m glad it’s going to be them taking the losses and not me though.
“People in Bartlett”
Isn’t that a pear? People live on a pear farm?
Anyone looking at/living in an SFH on the N or NW side of the city cares as much about people in Bartlett as people in Lagos; ie not at all.
But you are right that the threshold is $1.5m, rather than $1m, which is a combo of lot prices, higher end finishes and developer greed. In ’05/’06, when teardowns were essentially the same price, the new stuff was 1.3-1.6, and now it’s 1.7-2.
Two potential “markets”:
(a) new Cubs players who want to actually live where they work.
(b) rich Cubs fans who want to be where the action is when they finally win the Series and property values skyrocket even higher.