Looking for a Landmarked Old Town SFH with a Garage? 215 W. Eugenie
This 4-bedroom Italianate single family home at 215 W. Eugenie in the Old Town Triangle came on the market in July 2019.
Built in 1886, it’s on a smaller than normal Chicago lot measuring 24.67 x 92.10.
The listing says its landmarked and is featured in the AIA guide.
It has the layout that many buyers look for with all four bedrooms on the second floor including the master suite with a walk-in-closet and a master bath with a steam shower.
It has a partially finished lower level with a recreation room.
The kitchen has maple cabinets, stainless steel appliances by Subzero and Bosch and granite counter tops.
The listing says that the back of the house has been newly redone with a 1-car garage, deck, windows, siding and slider door.
The listing also says that the front and side windows of the house may need replacing.
The house has central air.
Originally listed at $1.285 million in July 2019, it’s still listed at that amount.
Getting a garage in the Triangle, even a 1-car garage, is rare.
Will this house sell by the holidays?
Kathleen Menighan at @Properties has the listing. See the pictures here.
215 W. Eugenie: 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 2478 square feet
- Sold in October 1983 for $320,000 (per Redfin)
- Sold in July 2000 for $765,000 (per Redfin)
- Sold in March 2008 for $865,000 (per Redfin)
- Originally listed in July 2019 for $1.285 million
- Currently still listed at $1.285 million
- Taxes of $20,835
- Central Air
- 1-car garage
- Bedroom #1: 14×14 (second floor)
- Bedroom #2: 16×12 (second floor)
- Bedroom #3: 13×9 (second floor)
- Bedroom #4: 14×9 (second floor)
- Office: 11×8 (main level)
- Recreation room: 19×15 (basement)
- Family room: 18×15 (main level)
- Dining room: 14×14 (main level)
- Living room: 15×14 (main level)
- Kitchen: 14×12 (main level)
“the front and side windows of the house may need replacing.”
That’s *super* easy on a landmarked building in the OTT. /s
Has to be pretty bad for them to mention it in the listing, right? Are they not watertight?
There are a lot of pluses to this house. Four bedrooms up, good space in the basement, parking, etc. But there are a lot of downsides as well. One side of the house is the service alley to Americana Towers, the backyard is simply a small deck, the kitchen and non-master bathroom need to be redone, some of the windows need to be replaced, they painted all the wood trim black (ugh), and I’d want a structural engineer to take a look out of an abundance of caution.
This has an odd property history. Prior to the current owner, this and the house next door were owned by the same person. He seems to have transferred part of the property in the back to 217. That’s why the garage, which is three spots, has two southernmost spots owned by 217 and the northern one owned by 215. Prior to the current garage being built, which was 2018 or so, 215 appears to have had a rooftop easement for a rooftop deck on the old garage (I could be wrong, but that’s what it appears to me from Google Streetview as of August 2016). There is no easement for the current garage and, even if you had one, it might be difficult or costly to build a deck (OTTA regs and moving the two compressors).
Add to all this, there now is actually inventory in Old Town for the first time in recent memory. Whether this is from a slowdown, seasonal, or just a coincidence, I don’t know. However, there has been an open house here almost every weekend since it was listed (save for holiday weekends) and there has been no movement.
And have every improvement I want to make need additional approval from the NIMBYs on the OTTA? I’ll pass. Seriously f*ck that group.
“NIMBYs”
I don’t think you know what NIMBY means.
“Seriously f*ck that group.”
Without that group the majority of OTT would look like Burling south of Armitage. Curb cuts and mega mansions built lot line to lot line.
They can definitely be nit picky but at least everyone who buys ahead of time know this. Its a trade off to keeping the character of the hood consistent.
I like it. Not sure why anyone would think the kitchen needs to be re-done. Is it just because it doesn’t look like everything else these days? The stuff in it isn’t exactly “cheap.”
Anyways, it is sad that much of the historic character is gone from the interior but at least you have the exterior and a SFH with a garage in an amazing location is nothing to sneeze at.
I would want to see the last 12 months of gas and electric bills to understand just how drafty those old windows are. As anon (tfo) noted, replacing those will be a lengthy and expensive process with many people having to weigh in. If it were easy or even remotely inexpensive the current owner would have done it already. Could maybe install another pane of glass on the interior as a stop-gap measure in the interim. As difficult as local preservation groups can be, this neighborhood would be just another cluster of anonymous McMansions were it not for their efforts. If you don’t like it, don’t buy a house there. Pretty simple.
“replacing those will be a lengthy and expensive process with many people having to weigh in.”
the design of the existing windows are pretty nice. if you’re replacing them in the same design (4 over 1) then shouldn’t they get approved pretty quick?
“if you’re replacing them in the same design”
Not just same design–must be essentially identical to the eye, as judged by the OTTA. Which means the rounded tops, and wood frames.
You could maybe get a little wiggle if you agreed to put in “better” windows on the side, which is also street visible.
How much are we talking about?
Would a Home Depot double hung window say cost about 1000 installed?
So are we talking 5x the cost here? or 10x the cost?
Custom glass
Custom frame
Custom Woodwork
@chichow – – the cost of the windows themselves will be high. 5x greater or 10x greater than typical, I don’t know as I have never done it myself.
The cost isn’t just the windows. Its also the time and effort to get it approved. My understanding is that in a landmark district, you cannot touch any street facing facade without getting approval. The people you are applying to aren’t exactly sophisticated members of the State Historic Preservation Org. They are your neighbors and who knows how much time they have / what their timeline is / or how reasonable or even knowledgeable on the topic they are. Just because you are rich enough to buy in a historic district doesn’t give you special insight of any kind. I am not saying that is the case here – – but if it were easy the current owner wouldn’t have opted to just live with it through the past two polar vortexes.
How is this property’s property tax? Is it about right? Should it expect major jumps?
“How is this property’s property tax?”
AV is 105,478, so could go up on the next re-ass, after a sale.
Listing has the wrong parcel number, as it got a new one for 2018 (prob associated with the garage thing Matt mentioned).
The first pass AV was 143,088, did quite well on their appeal. But does mean it is likely to need to be appealed every re-ass, as Assessor tend to anchor to their number. Maybe Kaegi will change that culture, which really just benefits the tax appeals industry.