Jackson Historic District Mansion Re-Lives the Gilded Age

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This is another home in the category of “they just don’t build them like this anymore.”  Yes, new construction is nice, but you’ll never get anything that looks anything remotely like this beautiful mansion at 1501 W. Jackson.

The Jackson Historic District is a strange few blocks of beautiful European row homes and single family homes a few blocks just east of the United Center in the West Loop.  You go from industrial grit in the West Loop to a tree-lined street and then back to industrial grit and parking lots.  From the Chicago Landmark District website:

These blocks are virtually all that remain of Chicago’s once-fashionable Near West Side. The houses, as well as the Church of the Epiphany, were built in the popular architectural styles of the period–Italianate, Queen Anne, Second Empire, and Romanesque Revival.

According to the house’s website, the home was built for lumber magnate Benjamin Franklin Ferguson.

1501 W. Jackson:  5 bedrooms,  4.5 baths 6000 square feet, 3 car parking, coach house in the backyard with a studio and two bedroom apartment, also a one bedroom apartment with separate entrance in the basement (used to be the servant quarters.)

  • Currently asking $2.250 million

The main house has 12 foot high ceiling and many of its original features are completely restored.  The wood work is stunning.

For more pictures check out the excellent website with an extensive slide presentation. (yes the music is kind of funky- but it does evoke old world elegance.) 

This house is pricey for the West Loop even if it is on three city lots (as the listing says).  There are several other historic mansions, not nearly as big or ornate, also for sale in the Jackson Historic District- all under $2 million.  It also is on a corner that looks directly onto the nearby college so that might turn off some buyers.

Scovell & Sabatini at Sudler Sothebys have the listing.

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