“The Archdiocese of Chicago has put an early-1900s home up for sale on the Kenwood block where former President Barack Obama has a home.
“The archdiocese is asking $1.4 million for the nine-bedroom house, built in about 1905 on Greenwood Avenue. Set on about thee-quarters of an acre, the house, which the Catholic Church has owned for at least 50 years and most recently used as office space, came on the market yesterday.
“Inside, the home’s intact vintage features include a wood-spindled staircase, ornamental beams and plaster on the ceilings of main rooms and arch-topped French doors.
“Anselmo said the house has no air conditioning, and while the utilities, kitchen and baths are all in good working order, they have not been updated in many years. Bring all those into the 2020s, he said, and it will be ‘a super-cool house, unique and historic.’
“It has a distinctive exterior, L-shaped with an entry cube set into the ‘L,’ brick quoining on all the edges and a porte cochere designed for carriages — and later cars — to drive through to the rear of the lot. Off the back of the house is a large covered porch.
“Built in about 1905, the house was the work of architect Jarvis Hunt, whose many buildings in Chicago and all over the country include train stations, banks, mansions and country clubs. Hunt designed warehouses for the Butler Bros. mail-order and retail company in 1899, a project that may have led him to designing this house for Butler Bros. President Homer Stillwell and his wife, Ellen, a few years later.
“Filling out the block of substantial homes is the KAM Isaiah Israel Sanctuary, an ornate and fanciful synagogue that houses Chicago’s longest-running Jewish congregation.” (Rodkin, Crain’s Chicago Business, 10/29/24)