Rare Joseph Silsbee East Lincoln Park Row House Available for Under $1 Million: 2113 N. Clark
This 6-bedroom Queen Anne row house at 2113 N. Clark in East Lincoln Park came on the market in early March 2016.
It was built in 1891 by Joseph L. Silsbee, a well known Chicago architect who served as a mentor to many younger architects, including Frank Lloyd Wright.
It has many of its vintage features still intact including 4 original wood burning fireplaces. Check out the fireplace mantel on that first floor beauty.
It also has the original wood staircase and 2 gable and dormer windows on the top floor.
Are those the original wood floors in some of the rooms? They appear to be.
There’s a parlor on the first floor and the living room is on the second floor with the master bedroom.
The kitchen has white cabinets and counter tops with black appliances.
There’s a sun room on the back deck on the second floor.
There’s also a finished basement with a laundry room and one of the bedrooms.
There’s no backyard but there are 2 side-by-side parking spaces.
It even has central air.
It’s a fee simple row house, so there’s no assessments. That’s also probably what accounts for the different colors of the trim on the roof of these row houses (in the picture above.)
This property was under contract once already but it has come back on the market.
This is the first time this row house has been on the market since 1994.
Is this a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a vintage lover?
Tracy Boyce at @Properties has the listing. See the pictures here.
2113 N. Clark: 6 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 3500 square feet, 2-car parking
- Sold in September 1986 (no price provided)
- Sold in September 1994 for $280,000
- Originally listed in March 2016 for $950,000
- Under contract
- Re-activated still priced at $950,000
- Fee simple- no HOAs
- Taxes of $12,437
- Central Air
- Bedroom #1: 17×14 (second floor)
- Bedroom #2: 14×15 (third floor)
- Bedroom #3: 12×10 (third floor)
- Bedroom #4: 12×7 (third floor)
- Bedroom #5: 12×9 (second floor)
- Bedroom #6: 12×9 (lower level)
“Check out the fireplace mantel on that first floor beauty.”
The paint job on the wood on the staircase and windows makes the mantel stick out too much and just looks too ornate compared to the rest of the house.
The baths and kitchen (decorated a la storm troopers) are in dire need of updating.
Still this is a gorgeous place and some tasteful restoration/remodeling can materialize its potential.
This place needs a ton of work, yes it’s nice but not sure you’d get your money back doing it right. A very particular buyer with deep pockets needed here.
I love this home and would love to live there. I even like some of the dated appearance. The house has a very homey feel compared to the sterile places often featured on this site.
With a fee simple association, what happens if the neighbor’s property causes damage to yours? I’m thinking a leak of some sort that causes water damage to your home, but not theirs.
The previous renovation shows that LP of the past wasn’t as tony as the LP of today. nobody today in LP would ever consider putting white melamine cabinets (or their veneered IKEA equiv) in their home. The parquet floors are probably not original; there’s a slight chance they’re fake because the wood floors are not mentioned in the description, although they look real. Nice small, but smaller; needs a gut, not sure if the numbers would work out after it’s all said and done.
“With a fee simple association”
It’s reasonably unlikely that there is an association. Probably party wall agreements, but that isn’t even a certainty.
I call BS on that 3,500 square feet. Looking at the floor plan and taking the most generous approach to calculating the area, it just doesn’t add up
“I call BS on that 3,500 square feet.”
When you count the ‘outdoor space’, it’s close.
Nobody should count outdoor space. Realtors who count outdoor space are not to be trusted.
I presume the 3,500 sq ft only is counting the top 3 levels, but even so, a kitchen, dining room and parlor could easily be 1,200 sq ft on the 1st floor, presuming the other top two floors are 1,100 sq ft; this seems easily done. Is it possible they are counting the lower level in the sq ft? I have seen some listings do that and others who don’t depending on how below grade that level is. Is anyone an expert on when a realtor can add a partial below grade listing to the sq ft of the house? I ask b/c certainly a duplex down doesn’t get shafted on sq ft in all of these homes, true? Does anyone know? If they are counting all 4 levels, it’s easily 3,500 sq ft. I love this place. A kitchen gut rehab with a wall knocked out into the dining room making a kitche/family room, and the wall between the 3rd and 4th bedroom upstairs would make this place gorgeous. I love the floors and while I have no idea if they are truly 125 yrs old, why would one care? Beautiful hard wood floors are beautiful at any age.
55K drop.
“I presume the 3,500 sq ft only is counting the top 3 levels”
There is a floor plan in the listing.
The first floor *might* round off to 900 sf, the second floor *might* round off to 750, and the third floor is around 600 sf. Basement is essentially same size as first floor, which makes it all *maybe* round up to about 3200. And that’s being *very* generous, unless the measurements in the floorplan are really off.
Add in the 320 sf of the two parking spaces, and you’re right there at 3500.
“Nobody should count outdoor space. Realtors who count outdoor space are not to be trusted.”
When did the posters here get so literal? Counting the outdoor space is a joke, and actually goes back to an elite realtor’s creative licensing with Sq ft for a house in the villa.
getting back to this house, the assessor has it has 2,292 for the first two floor, so adding 50% for the foot print of the basement gives it 3,438 sq feet, rounding up is 3,500, even though it’s obviously not all usable space.
I take my previous post back not realizing it was three levels plus the basement….regardless the assessor still lists it as 2,292, probably for all three levels…given the first floor is 900 sq feet…
Counting outdoor space SHOULD be nothing more than a joke, but it’s not. Some of them actually do it, and should not be trusted as it is underhanded and who knows what other unscrupulous things such a person might do.
Is that a hard concept to grasp?
I don’t think they actually count the outdoor space with a straight face as much as they just totally inflate the sq ft figure, often just making up a number, to make the home seem larger than it appears. The problem is that there is no accepted standard for determining reportable sq footage – walls and stairwells? usable space? finished basements? I like to start with the assessors figures which are usually above grade finished space, sometimes including a finished attic/upper floor, sometimes not. Sometimes the figures are old, outdated, missing or just plain wrong, but it’s a decent place to start; anon(tfo) likes to calculate his own sq footage from the floor plans.
” calculate sq footage from the floor plans”
It’s more accurate than the assessor’s number.