Hidden Architectural Gems Around Chicago: 3252 W. Victoria in North Park
Thanks to “Architect” for pointing out this 1943 2-bedroom Andrew Rebori designed home at 3252 W. Victoria in North Park.
It is currently under contract but only after being reduced by $50,000 since July 2009.
The home isn’t big, at 1345 square feet, but it has an original Edgar Miller sculpture and an “urban retreat” with a built-in barbecue.
Who says you have to buy a cookie cutter condo? You can have this historic home with its two-story windows for the same price.
Frank Maguire at Baird & Warner has the listing. See the pictures here.
3252 W. Victoria: 2 bedrooms, 1.5 baths, 1345 square feet, 1 car garage
- Sold in April 1989 for $172,000
- Sold in August 1998 for $220,000
- Originally listed in July 2009 for $429,000
- Reduced
- Currently listed for $379,900
- Under Contract
- Taxes of $4664
- Central Air
- Bedroom #1: 14×11
- Bedroom #2: 13×13
For that price I love it. Could totally see a North Park professor living there.
Wow — that seems like a deal to me. Beautiful home.
Another great house with an architectural pedigree: 7121 South Paxton, designed by John van Bergen. If I needed a house now, I would purchase this house. It’s a gem. Look at the low taxes, and the immaculate restoration. Be Jesse Jackson’s neighbor.
Those Paxton house taxes are truly puzzlingly low – $1902/year for a large lot 4 bedrm 2 bath house in a good neighborhood surrounded by other large homes?
This is the kind of amazing house that will attract someone who was not even looking in North Park.
Is the neighborhood North Park or Peterson Park?
Very lovely house. If there is space to add a third bedroom/den within the existing building envelope, then this would be even nicer (maybe create one in the unfinished basement?)
Great looking house its just that there’s not much going on in the neighborhood.
Don’t know much about the neighorhood, but I love the house…. Significant Homes, at this price point and in this condition don’t come around often. If it was still for sale I might have considered it as a second home.
That is a ridiculous house for under $400k. I don’t really know the area though. Street view looks a lot like Uptown; hopefully it’s not.
I could deal with a mediocre hood to get that house with that proximity for under $400k. Someone made a great purchase IMHO.
Hey man, you gotta a problem with Uptown?
North Park is nothing like Uptown, more subruban or Beverly-like.
“Architect on December 18th, 2009 at 6:33 am
Those Paxton house taxes are truly puzzlingly low – $1902/year for a large lot 4 bedrm 2 bath house in a good neighborhood surrounded by other large homes?”
Is it really a good area? There’s a Family Dollar on the corner like 3 doors down…
And 7XXX South addresses don’t inspire confidence in most of Chicago’s $400k+ purchasing crowd.
“Don’t know much about the neighorhood,”
valasko,
IMHO this hood is very quiet for a city, Peterson park is beuatiful (i take my little cousins to the Haunted trails there every year). Hollywood park is hit or miss, get ghetto some times. once you cross peterson going north there is a predominate orthodox jewish hood. Its close to shopping and lincolnwood mall.
oH crap late for a meeting finish later,
“jason(TFO) on December 18th, 2009 at 8:58 am
Hey man, you gotta a problem with Uptown? ”
I have a problem with the fact that it totally sucks, yeah.
Uptown rocks, at least in my area.
Beautiful place, nothing cookie cutter except for the kitchen. Love the flagstone patio. This area might not have the newest restaurant or trendy boutiques, but there’s nothing wrong about it; just not for the RN or LV crowd that wants that kind of ammenties at walking distance.
Arch-
What kind of kitchen reno do you do here to be consistant with the style of the rest of the house? Cherry cabinets, black granite, and low end SS appliances just don’t cut it here.
cool place. and the photographs make it look way bigger than 1300 sqrft without any noticeable wall bending. impressive.
Jason, what’s your part of Uptown?
“Those Paxton house taxes are truly puzzlingly low – $1902/year for a large lot 4 bedrm 2 bath house in a good neighborhood surrounded by other large homes?”
There’s a “longtime owner” exemption which would obviously go away. For that house, it reduces the taxes by more than 50% from what they would be w/ no exemptions. The 2008 taxes were actually *lower* that the 2007 taxes. The assessor also thinks it has only one bathroom and is under 2200 SF.
Look for the taxes to go up quite a bit next assessment cycle after the sale.
I suppose calling North/Petersen Park “urban” is technically correct, although this neighborhood is somewhat suburban in feeling and flavor. You’ll need a car if you live here, or you’ll live and die by the Kimball bus.
Not that there’s anything wrong with a suburban flavor, mind you. If you like a quiet neighborhood full of families and don’t mind depending on driving, this is the neighborhood for you. And quite a beautiful house, too.
This easternmost edge of Peterson Park neighborhood isn’t suburban in character – block is mostly multi-family with handful of houses.
There is little retail within walking distance – no grocery store, but maybe a half-mile to Lincoln Village. Mass transit means Peterson Avenue bus to Bryn Mawr station, or Kedzie bus to Brown Line terminal.
Secret plus, however, is its next-door-neighbor location to Northside Prep, which may give extra points to your CPS student’s entrance application. However, new rules are so convuluted that only CPS administrators know how it works.
House is very small, but “small is beautiful” per E F Schumacher.
“its next-door-neighbor location to Northside Prep, which may give extra points to your CPS student’s entrance application. However, new rules are so convuluted that only CPS administrators know how it works.”
Has anyone with above-average reading comprehension said/written anything about the proximity bonus applying to S-E HSs? Because everything I’ve read from CPS (and those discussing it who seem to have some reading comp skillz) has the proximity bonus applying only to *magnet* schools–which does not include the 6 S-E HSs or the gifted Elem programs.
Now, I may well have missed something, but I’ve seen/heard LOTS of clearly uninformed rants about it (not that the rants aren’t justified, but when one complains about something one doesn’t understand, both the complanit and the complainer are more easily dismissed), so I would need to be pointed to something reasonalby clear.
“There is little retail within walking distance – no grocery store, but maybe a half-mile to Lincoln Village”
i thought there is a little grocery store across from Thillens stadium?
“i thought there is a little grocery store across from Thillens stadium?”
If that’s walking distance (just under 1 mile), then why not the Lincolnwood Dominicks (right at 1.5 mile)?
“If that’s walking distance (just under 1 mile), then why not the Lincolnwood Dominicks (right at 1.5 mile)?”
ah the quick pay back for the boundaries comment. at the time i wrote that i was thinking the house was on the north side of peterson.
One mo gain:
There is NO proximity lottery for selective enrollment high schools. The only way you’d benefit by living close to NSCP is increased opportunities for schmoozing with the principal.
In fact, under new guidelines, you should look to find the best place you can in a poor census tract with low O/O rates, high ELL rates, and many single-parent households.
Roma:
thx for the confirm.
“art moderne”.
stunning. would buy.
We looked at this house and wanted it to work cause it’s cool, but it was sooooo small, we couldn’t deal with it. We have more room in our rental.
The Paxton house is indeed quite beautiful, but hard to see spending that kind of money on the wrong side of Jeffery AND the wrong side of 71st. How much would it be if it were in JP Highlands?
Well, I went searching for what was available in the Highlands, and found this @ 399, to really be Jesse’s neighbor (let’s not kid and think that you’d be his neighbor on Paxton):
http://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/6911-S-Constance-Ave-60649/home/13926542
Listing says: “Ready for 2nd floor expansion”
Architect, others: thoughts?
Also, how about comments on this listing price history:
http://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/6927-S-Constance-Ave-60649/home/13926812
Aug 13, 2009 Price Changed $415,000 — MRED #07029661
Oct 20, 2008 Price Changed $375,000 — MRED #07029661
Oct 06, 2008 Price Changed $337,500 — MRED #07029661
Sep 22, 2008 Listed $375,000 — MRED #07029661
I guess after another 6 months unsold, the price will go up to $470k??
The Victoria house closed for $363k. Despite Fyodor’s warnings (http://cribchatter.com/?p=7951#comment-58552), this seems like a great deal to me.
Paxton is back on the market, now down to $380. Taxes only up a hundred bucks as of 2011, and AV is down almost 15% for 2012; but of course, it hasn’t sold yet, so senior and LTO exemptions are still kicking in.
Most beautifulest sub 500k Chicago home on the market?
anon (tfo) (December 18, 2009, 9:58 am)
“Those Paxton house taxes are truly puzzlingly low – $1902/year for a large lot 4 bedrm 2 bath house in a good neighborhood surrounded by other large homes?”
There’s a “longtime owner” exemption which would obviously go away. For that house, it reduces the taxes by more than 50% from what they would be w/ no exemptions. The 2008 taxes were actually *lower* that the 2007 taxes. The assessor also thinks it has only one bathroom and is under 2200 SF.
Look for the taxes to go up quite a bit next assessment cycle after the sale.
Paxton down to $350k:
http://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/7121-S-Paxton-Ave-60649/home/13924553