1891 4-Bedroom Bucktown Mansion Returns 9-Years Later at $2.495 Million: 2138 W. Caton
This 4-bedroom Romanesque Revival single family home at 2138 W. Caton in the “Bucktown & Wicker Park area” came on the market in June 2025. (Do you think Mario was reading Crib Chatter about this area north of North Avenue and JohnC’s constant posts that it is really Wicker Park???)
We chattered about it in 2016 when it had price reductions. The discussion was about the Blue Line El, which runs directly behind the house.
See our chatter here.
If you recall, this entire block is landmarked.
Built in 1891, this home is on a double lot measuring 50×100. The listing also says it has a brick 2-car garage and is the only home on Caton with a garage with alley access.
The listing says it has “historical charm and modern luxury.” It has many of its vintage features including:
- leaded glass windows
- plaster walls
- hand carved medallions
- cove moldings
- a hand carved staircase
- ornate oak leaf woodwork
- a pier mirror
- period lighting
- original door hardware
And 3 fireplaces, which the prior listing said were gas but this listing says are wood burning. The fireplaces are in the kitchen, library and living room.
The kitchen is “modern” with white cabinets, stainless steel appliances, space for a small table and chairs and the fireplace.
The library has brass painted crown molding.
The primary bedroom is en suite.
The attic is finished.
The house also has a lower level recreation room.
The house has features that buyers look for including central air and, from the pictures, 2 sets of washer/dryers.
It is near the shops and restaurants of Wicker Park and Bucktown as well as bus lines and the Blue Line El stop at Damen.
It sold as a 3-bedroom in 2016 for just $938,500 but it came back on the market as a 4-bedroom home in June 2025 at $2.495 million.
It has been re-listed several times but the price has remained $2.495 million.
Will the seller get their price?
Mario Greco and Marcello Navarro at Compass have the listing. See the pictures and floor plan here.
2138 W. Caton: 4 bedrooms, 4.5 baths, 4700 square feet, single family home
- Sold in June 1978 for $90,000 (per Redfin)
- Sold in July 1994 for $479,000
- Originally listed in February 2016 for $1.495 million
- Reduced
- Sold in October 2016 for $938,500
- Listed in June 2025 for $2.495 million
- Currently still listed at $2.495 million
- Taxes are now $26,809 (they were $10,636 in June 2016)
- Central Air
- Double lot: 50×100
- 2 car garage
- 3 fireplaces (wood burning?)
- Bedroom #1: 15×12 (second floor)
- Bedroom #2: 12×11 (second floor)
- Bedroom #3: 15×10 (third floor)
- Bedroom #4: 18×17 (second floor)
- Recreation Room: 31×24 (lower level)
- Attic: 17×24 (third floor)
- Dining room: 15×13 (main floor)
- Living room: 14×15 (main floor)
- Kitchen: 20×9 (main floor)
- Family room: 12×13 (main floor)
- Foyer: 10×11 (main floor)
- Screened porch: 15×8 (main floor)
- Walk-in-closet: 12×7 (second floor)
- Walk-in-closet: 4×11 (lower level)
- Laundry: 7×13 (lower level)
- Storage: 7×7 (lower level)
Either the buyer in 2016 got an absolute steal or there were some major underlying issues with the place that needed repairs. Anybody know if the seller poured money into this place to get it up to par?
Usually realtors love to brag in the comments about all the improvements the current owner made in an attempt to justify the price demanded.
the train running through your back yard would be a problem
“the only home on Caton with a garage with alley access”
Apparently the south side of the street doesn’t count as being “on Caton”–I see at least 4 garages behind houses on the southside of Caton along that alley.
Comp from last year: https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/2152-W-Caton-St-60647/home/13354139
same size lot. Garage + driveway (which, IMO, is better than alley access).
Both these houses are great, but relatively niche bc of the bedroom layout for the size of the house. Like them both; dunno that I would want either of them as a primary home, even w/o the train issue (which would bother me).
South of Armitage, so not Bucktown. Real estate agent just blowing smoke and lying.
Whatever MAHA-man.
(Make Armitage Holstein Again)
Love how much vintage is preserved here. Obviously the trains are a huge issue. If you can stand the noise, it’s OK, but if you can’t, you aren’t liable to be interested. Could take a unicorn – someone who can afford $2 million and doesn’t mind the noise.
Reduced to $2.345 million.
anon (tfo), I’d take either one of them if I could afford it and it got me back in Chicago.
I wonder if the outdoor kitchen is included in the one you listed or do you have to buy it from the owner?
Icarus:
I’m only saying that I personally might go a different direction with my (hypothetical) $2.5m budget for buying my one and only home in Chicago. Because of (i) Train and (ii) don’t love the room distribution.
I’d be very happy to have a friend I could visit in either of these houses.
From the listing, I would suspect at least the majority of the outdoor kichen went with the sale–it’s referenced in the listing copy, prominantly featured in the pix, and there is no reference to exclusions–of course, it still could have been exlcuded. To bad Groove isn’t around to go peek over the wall.
anon (tfo), care to elaborate on the room distribution?
and whatever happened to Groove and HD?
“care to elaborate on the room distribution?”
Sure.
For the feature, basement is fine and the main floor quite nicely laid out (albeit with a compact cooking area in the kitchen), but look at the 2d floor:
the best room is the office (no closet, so it ain’t a bedroom), the primary bedroom is a janky space, with two windows in one corner and no other natural light, there’s a weird corridor to the bath AND closet, which are open to each other(??) probably to draw in natural light to both and the corridor from that window. Hall bath looks ‘cozy’; 2d bedroom looks smaller in the pix than the measurements indicate–I’m trusting the pix which are overall pretty good. Biggest thing there–only 2 real bedrooms.
third floor–totally open, and that’s the 3d bedroom? whaaaa?
Basically, for how I live, that one would live like a 2 bedroom + Den/office, with 3 family rooms–and the reality is one of those would become a de facto 2d office/den.
The (sold) one I linked to:
Don’t like the 3d floor primary, seemingly without a door/actual privacy that has nothing between it and the front door. And also seemingly no door to the bathroom?? Closet area feels like an afterthought-“oops, we have to hang slothes somewhere”.
Don’t like the combo brick-rubble foundation. Flow of the first floor feels very off–the dining room is also the hallway from the front of the house to the back, kitchen location and powder opening on to the island is awkward, two sets of stairs is useful, but chews up a ton of good space, laundry “hallway”–at the open top of stairs to the kitchen–is a bad compromise, IMO, etc, etc.
Do like a lot of the details a ton, tho.
For both: on a 50′ wide lot, I want a wider house than either of these is.
Too bad you cannot combine the parts you like and get rid of the parts you don’t.
Perhaps this is the best that could be done on 134 yr old mansions without complete gut rehab.
We happen to be renovating our en suite and I can tell you sometimes decisions make themselves.
anon (tfo) et al, I’ve been thinking: who is the buyer for a home like this? do you just put down standard 20% or buy it outright?
“and whatever happened to Groove and HD?”
Groove has appeared off and on over the years.
HD said he was leaving in 2016-2017 (after Trump won) and has never come back. He was always a bear so maybe he just didn’t want to chat about a housing market that wasn’t in foreclosure doom anymore. Although I would have thought he would have come back during the pandemic, like Bob the Bear did.