Live in a Bertrand Goldberg Mid-Century Modern Ranch: 1310 Brassie in Flossmoor
You wouldn’t be living in anything cookie cutter in this 4-bedroom mid-century modern brick ranch at 1310 Brassie in south suburban Flossmoor.
Designed by famed architect Bertrand Goldberg in 1957 (he designed River City and Marina Towers in Chicago), it has many unique features for fans of the mid-century modern style.
The home has stunning vaulted wood truss ceilings and a steel fireplace.
There are walls of thermopane glass throughout.
The kitchen is described as a chef’s kitchen with modern stainless steel appliances and white cabinets.
The house is built on a 149.5×190 lot and has a 2.5 car heated garage.
It is also just 3 blocks to downtown Flossmoor and the Metra.
Joe Kunkel at Baird and Warner has the listing (# 312-371-0986). See more pictures here.
1310 N. Brassie: 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, 2.5 car garage, 2784 square feet
- Sold in July 2002 for $445,000
- Originally listed in April 2010 for $485,000
- Currently listed for $485,000
- Taxes of $11,786
- Central Air
- Bedroom #1: 16×12
- Bedroom #2: 15×10
- Bedroom #3: 12×11
- Bedroom #4: 11×10
How bad is Flossmore?
This place is amazing.
Oooh.
What the hell is a Floosmoor?
Cool place. But there better be excellent schools etc. for that kind of taxes.
I LOVE it!
What an awesome house.
Homewood-Flossmoor High School, if memory serves, is a good school.
Decent schools. High taxes. In an enclave of goodness on the far South Suburbs. e.g. Homewood / Flossmoor / Olympia Fields
Very nice place IF the new owner comes through and does some minor tweaking to the finishes…and is able to haul it to someplace other than BFE.
I don’t know about the area either, but why would you want to live that far out of the city? I am all for suburbia as it does offer some decent amenities, but this one is just too far south of the action. I remember taking a trip down in this area to pick up some supplies and was not at all impressed with what I saw. Reminded me of the armpit of Ohio.
I recall the other groovy mid century place featured here, why couldn’t this house be in the same neighborhood? 🙁
Glad to see Cribchatter branching out a bit. My wife grew up in Olympia Fields and I know that town has been hit hard with foreclosures and short sales. Not familiar with Flossmoor. Many people commute to the city from there but it just seems like such a hassle. Of course, you get so much more for you money down there. Life is a lot simpler there – but the commute is not.
OMG DO WANT
Deliciously lovely.
Thats what i’d call an OPEN floorplan… jeez
Really cool place for the $, but Flossmoor really sucks but just not as bad as most south burbs
I am guessing Sabrina also choose this property since its close to the train station. Looking at the schedules, its 45 mins in to downtown. Metra is a nicer ride than the CTA.
For nice smaller suburbs a little bit out, I used to think of
North: NorthField, Glencoe, Ken(I’mworthsomuch)
West: Hinsdale, Lagrange, Oak Brook
Its where dentists live
Site eating my posts again
For nice smaller suburbs a little bit out, I used to think of
North: NorthField, Glencoe, Ken(I’mworthsomuch)
West: Hinsdale, Lagrange, Oak Brook
and then to the
South: Homewood, Flossmoor, Olympia Fields
I’m pretty sure this agent specializes in mid century houses and also deals in furniture of the same vintage.
Interesting niche…..
Nice place. Reasonably priced for the money. Nice suburban bedroom community.
The taxes are killer however. Negotiate 15% of list and this is a deal.
But how did people ever commute downtown from the suburbs when most of the city was a craphole circa 1960-1990?
“But how did people ever commute downtown from the suburbs when most of the city was a craphole circa 1960-1990?”
Not sure I get your question. People have been using commuter rail and automobiles since 1960 to get downtown.
I know taxes are usually based on purchase price BUT…..
149.5×190 lot in Flossmoor w/ $400k house = $11K
25×125 lot in Chicago w/ 400K house = $6K
Not really that far off……
how can I found one like this on the northside? Any suggestions? I love it!!!!!
But how did people ever commute downtown from the suburbs when most of the city was a craphole circa 1960-1990?
um…. the train? Here’s some interesting information…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metra
My response was to :”Many people commute to the city from there but it just seems like such a hassle. Of course, you get so much more for you money down there. Life is a lot simpler there – but the commute is not.”
People commuted down town from the suburbs from basically right after the Chicago fire. Many of Chicago’s neighborhoods weren’t originally within the city limits, they were the bedroom suburbs of the late 1890’s. Commuting downtown might suck but people have been doing it for over a century.
You suck it up, you do the commute. If you wanted to have a family, living in a decent area 15 or 20 minute from downtown wasn’t an option until the late 1970’s or so when LP turned the corner.
Joe Kunkel often has great mid-century modern listings on his site. Great house, and if it were located on North Shore or elsewhere it would be an easy sale at that price. But go to MLS and look at “low price : home value” ratio for Flossmoor/Olympia Fields. This area is in transition, with a number of foreclosure-type properties unusual for a formerly solid upscale community. Many of the surrounding communities (aside from reasonably decent Homewood) are in worse shape yet. A household moving considering this location needs to do careful due diligence.
Sabrina, thanks for posting this original, non-cookie cutter. I have been watching this gorgeous home with incredulity for months now (it is too big for me), and I can’t believe no one has bought it. The setup is so amazing — one side for entertaining, one side for living. You can’t beat that kitchen. Great home with a great history. There’s a youtube video on this somewhere; Joe Kunkel hosted a tour at some point last year. It is hard to find listings of a great mid-century, but this is one of them … agreed that Joe Kunkel and his website listing is your best resource. Vik Wadhwa is another one who specializes in great mid century homes like this.
Sorry, posted that too fast. Sabrina, can you delete the last sentence of my post, or correct it? The other realtor I’m thinking of is Vik WADHWA.
Architect, you are the sharp-eyed contributor who noted that Andre Rebori home on 3252 West Victoria Street that was featured on CribChatter for under $400. Talk about incredible. If you had posted that a little earlier, I would be living in that house!
ALT, the place on Victori was apparently sold for $363K. I dont know much about the area, but you’re right, that place is cool.
This was the kind of house my mother aspired to. It really is a beautiful and exceptional mid-century modern house, everybody’s dream house at that time.
Flossmoor is considered to be a good suburb with fairly decent schools.
Lots of beautiful big treed lots and mid century modern homes in the H-F and OF area. Demographics are not on their side though; the area is on a downward slope, likely not reverseable.
What a beauty! I would love to live in a house like this and surround myself with mid-centuy furnishings and art. Joe has some beautiful listings on his Web site.
Flossmoor is a little dodgy indeed. It seems to be going in the wrong direction in its transition. Architect is right in his / her assessment that any move to Flossmoor should be considered very carefully. My cousin currently lives there, and he’s trying to get out before his children reach school age (“trying” being the operative word here, as his home is worth far less than what he owes on it).
This home would nab a much higher price if it were in the mid-century modern areas of Glencoe, Highland Park, etc.
I’d have to agree on the downward trend for Flossmoor. Its really sad.
I wonder what it takes for certain communities to just have that range of owner types to just keep churning. The ones that come to mind for me are Park Ridge and La Grange.
Taxes are extremely expensive and will likely continue to rise.
I am surprised that more people don’t move to Oak Brook where there are NO municipal real estate taxes (you have to pay county taxes).
For a 400k house in oak brook, taxes are 3733
For a 400k house in hinsdale, taxes are 6000
For a 400k house in naperville, taxes are about 6000
For a 400k house in West Chicago, taxes are about 9000
Multiply that number to fit your comparison. It’s interesting…..
Well, you don’t have to pay municipal real estate taxes in Oak Brook, but you *do* have to put up with BS like this:
http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=325508
“Those who come up here with tears in their eyes talking about the library, put your money where your mouth is,” Xinos shot back. He told Sydney and others who spoke against the layoffs of the three full-time staffers (including the head librarian and children’s librarian) and two part-timers to stop “whining” and raise the money themselves.
“I don’t care that you guys miss the librarian, and she was nice, and she helped you find books,” Xinos told them.
“Don’t cry crocodile tears about people who are making $100,000 a year wiping tables and putting the books back on the shelves,” Xinos smirked, apparently referencing the fired head librarian, who has advanced degrees and made $98,676 a year. He said Oak Brook had to “stop indulging people in their hobbies” and “their little, personal, private wants.”
I’d rather pay higher taxes and have decent city services, myself.
Oak Brook isn’t a fair comparison for taxes given the amount of commerce…likewise with Rosemont.
Compare Apples to Apples. I did mention Oak Brook in an earlier post, but I tried to point out that it had commerce.
This site doesn’t like the “less than sign followed by dashed”
I’ve shown $399,000 homes in St. Charles and Geneva with $10,000 a year in taxes.
“#clio on June 24th, 2010 at 12:54 pm
Taxes are extremely expensive and will likely continue to rise.
I am surprised that more people don’t move to Oak Brook where there are NO municipal real estate taxes (you have to pay county taxes).
For a 400k house in oak brook, taxes are 3733
For a 400k house in hinsdale, taxes are 6000
For a 400k house in naperville, taxes are about 6000
For a 400k house in West Chicago, taxes are about 9000
Multiply that number to fit your comparison. It’s interesting…..
“
Librarians don’t need to make $98,000 a year. It’s a slippery slope because then pretty soon everyone feels entitled to that kind of money, in addition to a pension at that amount, and it bankrupts the cities and towns. Mish has been writing about this extensively over the last year or so.
That article on Oak Brook was awesome. More power to them for having the political will to keep services from continually expanding.
Oh and this house is incredible.
Hmm…I grew up in park forest, and moved to homewood for high school. Went to homewood flossmoor. Great school at the time(class of ’94). But after I left, they redistricted to add diversity which just added gangs and metal detectors.
flossmoor always had high taxes, but better schools, good services and no crime to speak of. Haven’t been back in years. Would be a shame if it really was going downhill.
I spoke with a high school student from Flossmoor a few weeks ago. She said her high school was an interesting (and not in a good way) mix of regular people and thugs.
Madeline wrote
“Well, you don’t have to pay municipal real estate taxes in Oak Brook, but you *do* have to put up with BS like this:
http://www.dailyherald.com/story – and referenced this interesting article.”
As a resident of Oak Brook, I have to say that Oak Brook services are EXCELLENT (there will always be unhappy people in ANY situation, an example of which is seen in this article). Oh, and by the way, I live on the same block as the 11 year old mentioned in the article. While I am very sorry that she cried and was saddened by the firing of the librarian, what the author fails to mention is that this very privileged young lady lives in a 6-7 million dollar house and probably has more support in her own house than ANY municipality could afford!! It is a hard, but good lesson.
Also, the member of the board mentioned in the article is vilified and quoted as saying “put your money where your mouth is”. While this sounds very callous and cold, people have to understand that most people who live in the vicinity of the library and use its services truly DO live on properties worth over 4 million dollars. Everything should be taken in context!!
sorry for the distracting comments
I live on the same block as the 11 year old mentioned in this article.
sound like its true they can pool-donate for the librarian position; but that guy is not cool; that lesson could be taught in a better way.
I occasionally do some work down there and as far as I’ve seen, Flossmoor by itself is just OK. Everything around it is a frickin ghetto. The home is awesome, but it’s too bad it’s located down there. You would be better off spending your 485,000 in parts of Evanston or even parts of Wilmette. At least up there you get WAAAAAAAAAy better schools that you don’t have to pass thru a metal detector in order to enter.
Lovely house, seems high for the area and pricing of other houses. HF HS has had increasing problems. Is a shame as Flossmoor and Olympia Fields have an unusually large number of wonderful contemporary homes that have great sites.
The outside of the house – nothing special. The inside – OMG! What a contrast – really cool.
Suburbs????
Sabrina what happened? I thought we never left the city on crib chatter.
Check out 100 Shoreline Drive Park Ridge, IL on redfin. It was a MCM that was in rough shape but is now under contract. It was listed at 899k.
JP3
You missed some of the chatter. There was talk about throwing out the occasional curveball and feature a place in the suburbs.
I kinda of like Flossmoor and I think it was a good place to start.
Maybe Sabrina will toss some softballs out to Des Plains (errrrr) and then even Naperville (bleh)
AWESOME PLACE, AWESOME!!
what are the acoustics like in this place? rip a fart in one corner the whole house will be looking for stay ducks.
“rip a fart in one corner the whole house will be looking for stay ducks.”
I will attribute your hang up with gas an end product of your alcohol over consumption last night.
“I will attribute your hang up with gas an end product of your alcohol over consumption last night”
yep sally got a one track mind, doesnt matter if shes yours or mine!
“Everything around it is a frickin ghetto”
I went to HF way back when. Flossmoor was where the rich kids lived. My school bus went down Flossmoor Rd everyday right by this place. I remember some of the kids had great parties when the parents were away. I was always impressed by how nice the homes were and how poised and well dressed the kids seemed compared with the riffraff I ran with. Ahh memories.
I’d buy it at this price (if I could). This house would suit me to the T. Just beautiful. Great location next to the Flossmoor Country Club.
I just don’t have the fear of “ghetto” like some other posters. Kids should learn how to navigate diverse schools.
What’s with all those chairs in the kitchen?
“just don’t have the fear of “ghetto” like some other posters. Kids should learn how to navigate diverse schools.”
Given the high incidence of violent crime involving the school age residents of Chicago, I don’t believer many parents would want their child doing any ‘navigating’ of diverse schools just for the sake of saying they have experience of attending such schools.
Another series of stupid and ill informed posts. For those of you have not seen this area, Brassie and Braseburn are two of the most beaudtifl streets in Suburban Chicago with very beauftifil and exceptionally maintained homes.
For all you misinformed posters, Flossmoor is more diverse today than what it was five ten years ago. Is that bad. Not if you like diversity. Yes if you are affraid of possibly having an upper middle class african american family as a neighbor.
HF High School is a great school. Currently have two children there who are getting a first class education. Oldest is planning on attending Stanford in the fall.
Before one posts, please know a little bit about what you are posting about.
You people sound like a bunch of sheltered third graders. There are many areas I know nothing about. In those cases I shut up. Could use some of that here.
Flossmoor is indeed transitioning from an upscale white suburb to an upper middle class integrated one. Not for everyone I suppose but I have quite a few friends who work in Hyde park, bought there recently, and absolutely love it. The area ia absolutely gorgeous and crime is low. Metra electric is very convenient. I suppose if everyone has the childish attitude manifested here it could change too quickly for it’s own good, but I would have zero issues moving there if I were on the market. Obviously if the house were on the north shore it would be worth far more. Flossmoor is not the north shore, but it is much nicer than many posts imply.
I grew up in Homewood and went to H-F. Flossmoor was always a little more “exclusive” than Homewood, but we had a way better music program (Thanks Mr. Luke!).
Homewood and Flossmoor are on the commuter line going right into Randolph Street. Easy train ride (beats the commute I used to make into NYC from New Jersey).
I’m sorry to hear about the challenges now; in my day HF sent more kids to U of I than any other high school in the Chicago area.
Taxes, however, seem VERY high.
You people are so fortunate to have Metra, whatever problems you may have with it. I live in Ohio now, and there’s no such thing as a train commute into Downtown. It’s all automobile or maybe bus.
This house is featured in a new coffee table book called Julius Shulman: Chicago Mid-Century Modernism which came out in April.
There are apparently several mid-century modern homes on the south side, including in Blue Island.
This home was Goldberg’s last single family home.
I have lived in Flossmoor for 9 years. Before that Hyde Park for 7 years. We have twice the house for half the money. We have yards and garages and playmates for kids and streets full of mature trees.
Yes, our real estate is down some in value. But we aren’t getting slammed like a lot of places that had those ginormous run-ups. Taxes are somewhat high, yes, but I’ve carefully examined the breakdown and 2/3 of the money goes to the schools which are quite good. I’d be curious to know what we get from Cook County, personally, for that $1000+ annually or whatever it is.
Western Ave. Elementary is one of the very best schools anywhere around Chicagoland, as is HF High School. The middle school Parker is less good, but OK. Our son has a FULL-TIME aide for free because of some very bad sensory issues; it’s been a godsend.
We are one of the most successfully integrated neighborhoods in Chicago if you care about such artificial nonsense; personally, I just want honest hard-working people of any hue and ethnicity.
Interracial couple two doors down, gay couple across the street, etc. Many black, Asian, Hispanic neighbors and classmates for my son.
I consider it nothing less than child abuse to send a kid to a Chicago public school, and the private schools are insanely expensive. Plus the Lab School SUCKS for little boys. I mean SUCKS REALLY BAD. Lots of sitting in circles talking about feelings and such, when they are feeling like climbing the walls.
You gotta spend your money somewhere.
Metra commute is maybe 50 minutes downtown to Millennium Park, hourly at least during the week; my wife commutes to U of Chicago in about 30 minutes.
Metra beats the absolute cr@p out of the bus and L. You can get computer work or reading done comfortably, so it’s not like the time is wasted.
And we don’t get our cars or houses broken into EVER, and we don’t get hit up by bums and clowns selling STREETWISE every 5 seconds. Flossmoor has had only one murder in 127 years, as opposed to one a day in Chicago.
Shopping is much less expensive, saving us thousands a year easily; try shopping at Sam’s or Costco from downtown.
Have an open mind: come on down by Metra some weekend for $7 and look around; we also have one of the best brewpubs in the country, attached to the Metra station: http://www.flossmoorstation.com
Nov 03, 2010 Delisted (Cancelled) — — Inactive MRED #2
Jul 26, 2010 Price Changed * — Inactive MRED #2
May 29, 2010 Relisted (Reactivated) — — Inactive MRED #2
Apr 28, 2010 Listed (New) * — Inactive MRED #2
Jul 02, 2009 Delisted (Expired) — — Inactive MRED #1
Aug 20, 2008 Price Changed * — Inactive MRED #1
Jul 21, 2008 Price Changed * — Inactive MRED #1
Jul 19, 2007 Listed * — Inactive MRED #1
Sep 04, 2002 Sold (Public Records) $445,000 — Public Records
Flossmoor and Olympia Fields are beautiful suburbs with unique stylish homes on spacious well groomed lots. Visually as atteactive as most north shore suburbs. Population is about half black and half white. If you don’t mind living in an integrated environment, this area is ideal. Prices are probably half of north shore prices. The Flossmoor Country Club is amazing. This house is amazing. Love it. Wonderful buy.