Home Sweet Home – Only 2 Occupants Over 95 Years: 220 E. Walton in the Gold Coast
This 4-bedroom vintage unit at 220 E. Walton in the Gold Coast came on the market in November 2014.
Built in 1919, the listing says it is being sold by only the second occupant in the last 95 years.
Now those two owners saw a LOT of Chicago history from their windows.
The building has just 19 units.
There are only 2 units per floor and this one is 3000 square feet.
It has north and south exposures and the vintage features you would expect from a 1919 building including a 25×9 foyer and crown molding.
There is a wood burning fireplace in the living room.
The listing says it has space pac central air but there are window A/C units in several of the bedrooms.
Two of the four bedrooms are the typical massive sized vintage bedrooms but the other two bedrooms are behind the kitchen and are tiny. Those were likely the servants’ bedrooms.
It also has a library which the listing calls a family room.
There’s in-unit washer/dryer but no parking. It is available for rent nearby.
Originally listed for $925,000, it has been reduced to $875,000.
For someone with vision, and who wants to renovate, is this a good deal?
Richard Anselmo at @Properties has the listing. See the pictures here.
Unit #5E: 4 bedrooms, 4 baths, 3000 square feet
- There’s no prior sales info since it was so long ago
- Originally listed in November 2014 for $925,000
- Reduced twice
- Currently listed at $875,000
- Assessments of $2760 a month (includes water, heat, doorman)
- Taxes of $11455
- Listing says there is space pak central air
- Washer/dryer hook up in unit
- Wood burning fireplace
- Bedroom #1: 20×12
- Bedroom #2: 20×12
- Bedroom #3: 12×8
- Bedroom #4: 12×8
- Kitchen: 17×13
- Dining room: 19×13
- Library: 15×13
Will take 10 years to get the old person smell out of this one.
I love this type of place and the neighborhood. This is the type of place I would live if I was wealthy. It’s too bad about the window air conditioning units though. Could that be remedied?
HOA is $2700. Taxes are about $1k a month – total outlay for the privllage of living in this condo is $3,800/mo min. How much would this unit rent for?
Should just change the neighborhood name to “the old coast”
this place is disgusting and needs a total rehab
*2* bedrooms for servants!
“*2* bedrooms for servants!”
Yes, but how many bathrooms? What if both servants have food poisoning from having to taste the owners food first?
Surely the owners wouldn’t allow their servants to use the same toilets as the owners. There had better be 2 toilets for the servants. The servants’ bathrooms can be open concept though.
^ ahahaha missed you jenny
I like this place. Some rehab, can do wonders here. I even like the far away bedrooms. It is great for a live-in nanny or helper.
What kills it for me is the assessment.
Get it down to $800k, spend $200k on updates, and it’s got promise (even with those assessments). Nice spot, but I wouldn’t call it the G.C.
“I wouldn’t call it the G.C.”
What is it then? It’s certainly not Streeterville, even tho SOAR claims it, as would’ve Cap Streeter.
The Tribune’s much reviled (by me, at least) map app has the GC carrying all the way down to Grand, east of Mich, and Chicago, bt State and Mich:
http://boundaries.tribapps.com/#
It’s a partial explanation of why the Tribune seems so f’ed up when it reports the neighborhood locations of various incidents.
I know, I’d agree that it’s technically G.C. (the grand buildings fronting the Drive immediately north of this building are), but I guess I view Michigan Ave as the eastern border. Which makes it Sville, for lack of a better. I suppose another geographic source would be the aldermanic map (i.e., as to whether this spot falls within the G.C./LP Realm).
” suppose another geographic source would be the aldermanic map”
The ward map is a gerryamndered POS that has nothing to do with nothing other than grouping the blacks, chicanos and whites into wards so the pre-determined racial makeup of the council is most likely to be preserved.
” it’s technically G.C. (the grand buildings fronting the Drive immediately north of this building are), but I guess I view Michigan Ave as the eastern border.”
This is internally inconsistent. East LSD is entirely east of Michigan. One can set out a case that a neighborhood division exists in the middle of a block (even one without an alley), but it’s not too likely in Chicago.
I think that The Drake is part of the GC, which I think makes the whole block (both sides!) part of the GC, too. Want to draw the line down the center of Walton? Seems fair to me, but I do think that the East of Mich area north and south of Chicago Ave/Park-MCA are reasonably distinct.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streeterville#/media/File:Map(3).png
it’s streeterville
“it’s streeterville”
Because Wikipedia sez it is? And that’s the final word? Really?
As JoeZee sez on his website which shall not be named:
“Some Streeterville partisans lay claim to the fragment of the Gold Coast that includes East Lake Shore Drive.”
The Drake’s block (which includes this) is the DMZ.
The “Gold Coast” has always included the streets immediately adjacent to Lake Shore Drive below the 1600 block.
Beautiful bones, but needs a complete rehab, which would cost about %350,000 when you consider how much there is to tear out and how much updating the mechanical elements might need. I’m always surprised to hear how corroded and outdated the plumbing has been allowed to become in many of these fine old buildings, never mind the wiring, which sometimes hasn’t been updated since 1950 if even then.
The assessment is no surprise. These old vintage high rises are very costly to operate, and will get costlier. They were built when coal was $3 a ton, so are very badly insulated as a rule.
No, not just wiki, live in the neighborhood and this is the concensus.
https://www.seechicagorealestate.com/streeterville-real-estate-for-sale-chicago.php
Scowl drown and look at this map as well.
As defined by he that shall remain nameless… Case closed 🙂
http://yochicago.com/chicago-neighborhoods/Streeterville
I like the old bathrooms – the toilets and sinks were made to last, and the tiles from toe to chest protect the room from water. Renovated bathrooms only last < 10 years before the vanity vaneer curls off and shower splatter ruins the naked wallboard, and the modern inferior toilet mechanics could play a good role in an Edgar Allen Poe story.
When I glanced the location, number of beds and baths, and sq ft, I thought the ask was going to be closer to $2 M than $1. Then I noticed the lack of AC and parking, chopped up space, and "vintage". Nobody wants that.
Streeterville consists of 186 acres of made land, bounded by St. Clair Street and Michigan Avenue on the west, Lake Michigan on the north and east, and the Chicago River on the south. The origins of Streeterville are as shrouded in controversy as were the first four decades of its existence. The neighborhood dates from July 10, 1886, although the events of that night are not entirely agreed upon. There was a storm over Lake Michigan that night, and by morning the 35 ton steamship Reutan had lodged on a sandbar off the Chicago shore near Oak Street. At the helm was “Captain” George Wellington Streeter (1839?-1921); his crew was his wife, Maria (d. 1910).
As quoted from the streeterville collection, Chicago Public Library. The also have a plat of survey…….
http://chicagology.com/notorious-chicago/streeterville/
More history for you to….. 🙂
“Captain G. W, Streeter completes a one-room frame shack at the foot of Walton Street on 20 December 1901. The first house to be erected in Streeterville”
Mmm Walton Street isn’t this where said propert above is located?
This is an ideal layout for a family with two small kids (which I say as someone who lives in an apartment of similar size and layout) — the children can be at the far end of the home, undisturbed, while the adults can entertain in the living room and library. We are able to have friends over in the evenings and with several thick plaster walls between us and the back of the apartment where our children are, they are none the wiser. These vintage buildings with their separate “public” and “private” spaces (you’ll note the master bedroom and bedroom #2 are off the foyer behind a door with a small private hallway) top the modern open floorplans every time as far as I’m concerned.
They should just paint the whole place white, make the floors espresso, and it would look like its done by a designer.
I think you have to be south of Chicago Ave. to be in Streeterville. North of Chicago Ave. is GC. These types of places are NYC wannabe. Like the Odd Couple, or what was that lame show with Paul Reiser and the gentile blonde? Even the apartment Tom Cruise’s character lived in in Eyes Wide Shut. This is Chicago not the Upper West side. Ersatz new york and a lame version. The subject neighborhood is like a prison, walled off on two sides by nothing, a vast pond called Lake Michigan. If you drew a 1 mile radius around this location, all you pick up is water and tourists. Not Chicago
Family Affair, The Jeffersons, and Diff’rent Strokes, forgot those too. NY.
not Chicago.
It’s Streeterville. Cap Streeter’s shack
http://shifting-grounds.net/streeter/cap-district.html
Pretty sure that’s the Water Tower and Pumping station in the background of the first pic.
http://chicagology.com/notorious-chicago/streeterville/
The Gold Coast proper is everything north of Oak to North Avenue, west of Inner LSD and west to Clark Street. Potter Palmer developed it in the late 1800s, and most of it was either swamp or cemetery before he moved up from the Prairie District.
http://glessnerhouse.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-potter-palmers-and-their-famous.html
“Offered by 2nd occupant in 95 years. ”
When will realtors learn that this scares people away. This means AL ORIGINAL EVERYTHING and IN NEED OF GUT REHAB. and LOTS OF DIY EVEN THOUGH IT’S A VERY EXPENSIVE PLACE.
See, I’m just the opposite. I *want* the untouched vintage home so I can renovate it to my taste instead of undoing someone else’s hamfisted gut job. Most modern renovations of vintage buildings are like the addition they put on Soldier Field – ugly and out of place.
What are the ample parking options nearby? cost?
@overfriendlyconcierge
are you one of Laura Louzander’s plumbers?
It’s the Gold Coast. Streeterville stops at Delaware on the North. Walton/Drake area/ELSD area = gold coast
BTW, if I read the layout right, there is a door to outside in the kitchen so, if someone wants a more modern layout, they could open up the butler’s pantry and merge it with the dining room to make an open kitchen. Then the former kitchen and maid rooms can become a sort of its own little in law unit.
It’s Streeterville. Cap Streeter’s shack was at Walton and what is now LSD. My earlier comment is in moderation limbo, but here’s one link:
http://shifting-grounds.net/streeter/cap-district.html
And another:
http://chicagology.com/notorious-chicago/streeterville/
Take a peek at the buildings in the background.
I posted the same link Anonemoose but it with another 4 posts are in moderation limbo….
its streeterville….. even JZ calls it streeterville and SOAR has it mapped as streeterville.
Ha! Not Laura’s plumber, although I may ask her for a referral someday. (Not a concierge, either, for whatever that is worth.)
“It’s Streeterville. Cap Streeter’s shack was at Walton and what is now LSD. My earlier comment is in moderation limbo, but here’s one link:”
I’ve never called this area Streeterville. It’s always been called the Gold Coast by all the real estate agents I’ve talked to. But it’s like some parts of River North and the Gold Coast. Where does River North end and Gold Coast start on the west side of Michigan Avenue? That area has strange boundaries too.
I don’t think anyone living in the Drake or on East Lake Shore Drive would say “I live in Streeterville.”
“The assessment is no surprise. These old vintage high rises are very costly to operate, and will get costlier. They were built when coal was $3 a ton, so are very badly insulated as a rule.”
There are only 19 units in this building and it has a doorman. That’s not many units to cover maintenance costs.
pdiddy, I love a vintage bath, too, when it is in good condition. The quality of the fixtures, tile, and fittings tends to be way better than what a modern-day rehabber uses in their place. I’ve always loved the Deco tile in the 20s vintage baths- when it is in good condition.
As for air conditioning, you can get space pak. It’s expensive, but worthwhile in this price bracket, and allows you to have C/A without ugly ductwork that degrades the architecture.
sonies, sweetie, there is no “n” in my last name.
Sabrina – the fact that Cap Streeters shack was at Walton and northeast of the Water Tower can’t be ignored, even by Realtors ™. Gold Coast, as I mentioned earlier, begins north of Oak Street.
Best source for a lot of the info these days is Forgotten Chicago on FB. Me, I spent 14 years working in the tourism industry off Michigan ave and got to know a lot of the long time locals. Learned a lot.from th about what was what.
“Sabrina – the fact that Cap Streeters shack was at Walton and northeast of the Water Tower can’t be ignored, even by Realtors ™. Gold Coast, as I mentioned earlier, begins north of Oak Street.”
I don’t care where his shack was. For decades NO ONE would have said that anywhere north of Chicago in River North was the Gold Coast either but in 2015, it is.
Boundaries change. Neighborhoods evolve and their personalities change.
Again, I don’t know a single person who would say that the Drake is in Streeterville. And it’s just yards away from this building.
Well Zagat says the Drake is in Streeterville.
https://www.zagat.com/h/the-drake-hotel-chicago
And I live in Streetville and say it’s Streeterville. Anonmose and I are talking historical fact not agent fantasy.
Please read about the east lakeshore drive historic district.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Lake_Shore_Drive_District
Boundaries don’t change. That’s like saying Chicago is bleeding over into Oak Park over Austin Ave.
In fact, Streeterville is one of the 77 defined community neighborhoods of Chicago:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_North_Side,_Chicago#Streeterville
As far as teh Googles go, this is what it says when you search Drake Chicago Streeterville:
“Opened in 1920 in a landmark building on the Magnificent Mile, this upscale hotel is just off Chicago’s Gold Coast, 1 block from the Lakefront Trail and a 10-minute walk to the nearest El train station.”
Key words here being “just off” which means it’s not Gold Coast proper. The Gold Coast came into being because of the homes that were built there, not large, multi-unit buildings that came long after the Palmers were gone. Edith Rockefeller McCormicks home at the corner of Oak and Inner LSD was the bleeding edge of the Gold Coast.
Now, SOAR likes to say the neighborhood goes all the way to Rush Street, but even they are wrong.
People change, so does the makeup of neighborhoods. What doesn’t change are official and long accepted boundaries. Unless you’re a Realtor ™, that is. Then boundaries are up for grabs in an attempt to sell a property. Or a hotelier trying to make the location sound better than what it is.
Never mind the fact that a majority of the land west of Michigan and north of Oak Street is landfill.
The East Lake Shore Drive District is a historic district in the Near North Side community area of Chicago, Illinois. It includes eight buildings at 140 E. Walton, 179-229 E. Lake Shore Drive, and 999 N. Lake Shore Drive designed by Marshall and Fox and Fugard & Knapp and the opposing park. It was designated a Chicago Landmark district on April 18, 1985.[1] These buildings include seven luxury high rise apartment buildings and the Drake Hotel.[2] Note that neither of the buildings on either end of the district actually has an East Lake Shore Drive address.[2] This district is located within the Streeterville neighborhood and overlaps with the Gold Coast.
streeterville_real estate map
Neighborhood Boundaries in Chicago
Neighborhoods in Chicago have a history of changing names and boundaries. It’s just as true in the most affluent areas as it is in the bungalow belt.
Cynics often blame realtors for stretching a neighborhood’s boundaries in a more favorable direction or giving it a fancy new name, but often residents themselves disagree about what to call where they live.
Say, for example, you live on Chestnut, east of Michigan Avenue, in the shadow of the John Hancock Building. Would you call that area the Gold Coast?
How about the buildings on Lake Shore Drive south of Oak Street Beach? Are they also on the Gold Coast?
And if you lived on Pearson, facing the backside of the Museum of Contemporary Art—would you call your neighborhood the Gold Coast or Streeterville?
The differences between the Gold Coast real estate and Streeterville real estate weren’t always so hard to pin down. In the early 1880s, legendary Chicago millionaire Potter Palmer built the first mansion on Lake Shore Drive and the city’s wealthiest citizens followed in his footsteps. Today the Gold Coast is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Streeterville is right up there with the Gold Coast in terms of the most affluent neighborhoods in the United States, but it’s not a historic district. In the early 1880s, when millionaires were lining the newly formed Lake Shore Drive with their mansions, Streeterville was still a marshy sandbar.
Today most area residents agree on the general outlines of the two areas. The Gold Coast’s boundaries run south from North Ave to Oak Street, and west from Lake Shore Drive to Clark Street. Most will also accept Streeterville’s boundaries as Oak Street to the River and Lake Shore Drive to Michigan Avenue. They’ll probably even agree on designating the entire hospital district as Streetervile.
Where it gets complicated is along the fault line–Oak Street. But, even if the boundaries of these two equally luxurious areas are uncertain, people who live south of Oak Street and east of Michigan Avenue can be sure of one thing: they live in one of Chicago’s loveliest neighborhoods. Lets not even start talking about Wicker Park, Buck Town and Logan Square. To find out more about Real estate in “your Neighborhood” Call Ted Guarnero at 312-810-6693.
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For 8 years I have called this area the Gold Coast and I will continue to do so.
Sorry!
Go argue amongst yourselves.
Just trying to educate you Bri, try reading the narrative on said property, LOL
“Enormous, well laid-out, single-level (3000sf) apt -intimate, boutique building in prime Streeterville! – unmatched in location, privacy and urban ambiance in a quiet setting. Offered by 2nd occupant in 95 years. Strong & solid vintage w neo-gothic styling. Preserved arch detail. rich, patinated wood t/o. huge banks of windows. tranquil streetscape views. two units per floor. door staff. ample pkg options nearby.”
Who’s arguing amongst themselves? Oilc and I have been in lockstep this entire time. And as Oilc said, we’re just trying to educate. Sabrina — you want to change Chicago history for your convenience, go right ahead. But it’s not going to stick, and if you were to say Gold Coast to any longtime resident of Streeterville, you’ll get corrected tout de suite.
The Gold Coast got its name because Palmer developed the land and enticed his wealthy friends from the Prairie District to move north. He didn’t have to try too hard because the Levee was at the back door of Prairie. But what Palmer didn’t have influence over was Streeterville. Hence the reason there are firm boundary lines between the two.
“And as Oilc said, we’re just trying to educate. Sabrina — you want to change Chicago history for your convenience, go right ahead. But it’s not going to stick, and if you were to say Gold Coast to any longtime resident of Streeterville, you’ll get corrected tout de suite.”
Really? My best friend has lived on this actual street for 10 years. He has NEVER said Streeterville.
So it is Gold Coast.
Thanks for “educating” me.
By the way- the real estate agents all avoid this confusion by just listing it in the “near north side” designation. That makes it easier.
“Really? My best friend has lived on this actual street for 10 years. He has NEVER said
streeterville.”
“Thanks for “educating” me.”
Your very welcome- now you cam educate your friend as well.
“My best friend has lived on this actual street for 10 years. He has NEVER said Streeterville.”
Wow, that is pretty compelling evidence…