Historic Walter Burley Griffin House in Beverly Now a Short Sale: 1712 W. 104th Place
We last chattered about this Walter Burley Griffin-designed Prairie style house at 1712 W. 104th Place in Beverly in June of 2008.
See our prior chatter and pictures here.
It is 1 of only 64 Walter Burley Griffin-designed homes in the country. Walter Burley Griffin was Frank Lloyd Wright’s former office manager.
It went into foreclosure and was bank-owned in 2004. After being on the market over a year, it is now in short sale.
Here are some comments from a local realtor on the June 2008 thread that help explain the situation:
I am a Realtor in Beverly, Morgan Park. Yes, this house did sell in 2005 in horrific “rehabbed” and then extremely neglected state in 2005. Then the current owner did as much as he could to shore up the house including roof and soffit work done in keeping with the architecture but he did not alter much of the ugly rehab work that was done previously. Obviously, it did not make financial sense. Even at anything close to $475,000 he is still just barely getting out what he put in. Its unfortunate. Hopefully the next owner can take time to bring in back to its glorious original state and they will be able to live in it in the meantime, ugly and all!
Mary Anne McKenna Bryan – Full time Realtor and Expert in Beverly, Morgan Park and neighboring areas www.beverlymorganpark.net
Will someone save this piece of architectural heritage?
William Biros at Prudential Biros has the listing. See the pictures here.
1712 W. 104th Place: 5 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, 2081 square feet, 1 car garage
- Sold in May 1991 for $199,000
- Bank owned in June 2004
- Sold in June 2005 for $275,000
- But it also looks like it sold in June 2005 for $440,000 (two different PINs, same property???)
- Was listed in June 2008 for $469,000
- Reduced
- “Short sale”
- Was listed in August 2009 for $374,900
- Reduced twice
- Currently listed for $342,902
- Taxes of $5120
- No central air- window units
Boy this realtor sure did a bang up job of taking 3 pictures of the same room… How about a picture of the awesome yard? And the rest of the house?
Mortgage is for $414k and change.
Yeah you can overpay for real estate and also afford to send your kids to private school. Everyone I know from Beverly went to private school.
Something about being surrounded by really bad ghettos and not wanting your children to be continually victimized by the likes of these other children and also not learn a damn thing in school because public schools in this area are nothing more than containment facilities.
“Everyone I know from Beverly went to private school.”
Catholic school
This is a nice house, a 66×220 yard! That’s enormous! what’s the catch? Seriously, what’s the catch? If you’re a Beverly type of family (and you know what I mean) and you have two halfway decent city incomes (or one good income) this house is a deal. Sure Beverly is surrounded by Ghetto but there at least there are highways, train tracks and lots o’ cops acting as buffer zones. I actually like this house, it looks beautiful. there’s got to be a catch or some hidden defect, and i’m not talking about it’s location.
wild hundreds!!!!!!!!!!
no seriously, the wife and i love beverly and we thought about it back in 2002. we had a cop friend over there and visted in the summer bbq’d once a month at his place.
the issue for us was, for the distance traveled why not the burbs? why be this far out just to have a chicago address? berverly is great for city employee’s that HAVE to have a chicago address.
HD,
i think the defect was stated by the realtor the whole thing about the previous crap rehab work and the current owner not having the fund to correct all of it.
Beverly is a particular lifestyle as much as living in the north shore or LP is a lifestyle. Living most other places is just surviving.
oh, and i really want to like this place i really do…..
….but its like the LSD place where the kitchen doenst match the rest of the vintage feel.
i hope some architect, a historic soul, or at least a person that watches to much Geoffrey Baer on WTTW.
And i am never ever ever ever ever ever geting another place with out Central Air. my yearly winterizing my place had to take out three EXTREMELY heavy window units this weekend and put into the garage for the winter. (back still hurts)
I am not sure if I would call this Beverly. It is “on the other side of the tracks.” Still okay, but getting close to the edge. I also think it is a little overpriced. It might be in a historical district, which is a nightmare.
Yeah, histrocial. The sign is right in the front yard.
Historical. I’ve changed my mind, this is in Beverly.
*i hope some architect, a historic soul, or at least a person that watches to much Geoffrey Baer on WTTW buy this place and restore it.
Jason I believe the area east of Longwood Drive (roughly Rock Island spur tracks) is “East Beverly” while west of Western is “West Beverly”. While central Beverly home values appear to have held up I believe demand & home values in eastern and western Beverly, where the city worker demographic types live have fallen.
It is a beautiful house. Many of FLW’s staff have gone on to produce some unique homes based on his vision.
Great price for a historically significant property.
I do agree with Groove in that kitchen does not at all match the design of the rest of the house. Would be fabulous if all kitchen cabinets and design elements were done more period style…there is a great Stickely influenced line produced by….__________can’t think of it right now but it would really complement the house and add greatly to the resale value. I would probably be able to accept the lack of CA in exchange for the home’s great design.
We have friends who live in Beverley. It’s a nice community of interesting and well-kept homes, but surrounded on two plus sides by tough neighborhoods. Mount Greenwood to the west is changing, and the “safe cop neighborhood” reputation is dissipating. Morgan Park to the south is also changing, losing its “safe black middle-class neighborhood” reputation as gang activity spikes. Our friends’ son was mugged at gun-point on way to elementary school. They also note that local public library has serious daily problems with “teen misbehavior”.
Buying into Beverly now, in declining economy and as Chicago as a whole also declines, is a financial risk despite its inherent charm and lower prices (than north-side). Its ethically-challenged Alderwoman Rugai is in trouble, crime has spiked, and middle-class is slowly leaving Chicago neighborhoods for safer and better schools.
I’ll pass.