“A 19th-century mansion on Cedar Street, built by the onetime ‘Queen of Chicago’ Bertha Palmer and lavishly restored by its owners of the past 25 years, went up for sale today at $7.9 million.
“With some Moorish arches on the stone exterior, a carved staircase that curves up three stories, a peacock-blue tile fountain indoors and a top-floor glass conservatory crowned by a glass dome, ‘the house is unique in Chicago,’ said Mia Wilkinson, the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago agent representing it. The rooftop conservatory, Wilkinson said, ‘has breathtaking views of the lake’ one block east. ‘When you go up there, it’s like being on holiday.’
“Built in 1884, the house was cut up into rentals in about 1926, according to historical articles and for-rent ads in the Chicago Tribune. It was still rentals, a six-flat, when her clients bought it in the 1990s, Wilkinson said.
“It’s not clear what of the interior is original to the design of Joseph Lyman Silsbee. Best known in Chicago now as an early boss of Frank Lloyd Wright, Silsbee was a prolific architect in the Victorian era. Two of his most visible buildings are in Lincoln Park, the conservatory and the quaint Carson Cottage in Lincoln Park, a picturesque stone building that was originally restrooms. Silsbee also designed the world’s first moving sidewalk for the World’s Columbian Exposition held in Jackson Park in 1893.
“Silsbee’s patron is better remembered in Chicago. Bertha Honore Palmer built and lived with her husband, Potter Palmer, in a legendary castle on Lake Shore Drive. It was built in the early 1880s and demolished in 1950.
“Often called ‘The Queen of Chicago,’ Bertha Palmer was the daughter of a real estate developer and went into the game herself, building not only the Cedar Street mansion that’s now for sale but several other Gold Coast houses and thousands of acres in and around Sarasota, Fla., where she helped popularize the idea of affluent people from Northern states keeping a winter home.
“Bertha Palmer exerted significant influence in the now-cherished interior design of the Palmer House Hotel, the first version of which husband Potter built as a wedding gift to her. She was the head of the Board of Lady Managers at the Columbian Exposition and amassed an art collection that, when donated to the Art Institute of Chicago, became a core component of that world-leading institution.
“Not to be overlooked among Bertha Palmer’s achievements is her role in making a World’s Fair hit out of the brownie, still a favorite sweet nationwide.”