Chicago's most expensive house sells for over $15 million
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The most expensive house in Chicago sold for more than $15 million this week.
Sotheby's International Realty reported new owners closed on the house at 1932 N. Burling St. in Lincoln Park for $15.25 million this week.
The 25,000-square-foot custom mansion features six bedrooms, seven full bathrooms, four partial bathrooms, and what Sotheby's called "an unparalleled 177' x 149' parcel that spans more than eight city lots."
The house also features a limestone façade with relief work and balconettes, and private grounds with an arbor, a hand-forged pavilion, decorative fountains, and a reflection pool, Sotheby's said.
Inside, a 25-foot-by-25-foot entryway is bedecked in inlaid, precision-cut marble from the French Pyrenees, Sotheby's said. Beyond the entryway, a grand rotunda features a 22-karat gold repoussé staircase, Sotheby's said.
On the main level, the house features a game room, a media room, a project room, a sitting room, and two guest bedrooms overlooking the gardens, Sotheby's said. Upstairs, a grand living room, family room, library, music room, and formal dining room can be found—along with a chef's kitchen and a 2,000-square-foot wraparound terrace, Sotheby's said.
This terrace features a professional outdoor kitchen, a Kalamazoo grilling station, numerous lounge and dining options, and a wood-burning outdoor fireplace.
On the third level, there are more bedroom suites—one with a private study—and the primary bedroom suite, with a hand-carved English marble fireplace, a custom dressing room, a refreshment center, and two "spa-worthy marble-clad ensuite baths," Sotheby's said. On the lower level, a 5,000-bottle wine cellar and tasting suite features 14-foot ceilings modeled after the Great Stable of Versailles, Sotheby's 'said.
The design features 1,000-pound, custom-designed bronze entry doors, Italian plaster ceiling work and reliefs, custom millwork and notes of gilded and French polished burled walnut, 22-karat gold and platinum hardware, imported inlay stone, and "carefully curated 18th-century light fixtures," Sotheby's said.
Indeed, the very house itself might look like an opulent palace in London or Versailles dating from the 18th century. But it is actually quite new—having been completed only in 2010.
According to Chicago Magazine, the house was custom-built by Richard and Michaela Parrillo, who bought the land itself for more than $12 million in 2005, and reportedly spent $65 million on the construction of the house altogether. Richard Parrillo is chairman and chief executive officer of United Automobile Insurance Group.
The house was designed by Chicago architect Thomas Beeby—who was also behind the Harold Washington Library, Chicago Magazine reported.
Published reports say the property had previously been the site of a building dating back to the late 19th century that originally housed the Chicago Nursery & Half-Orphan Asylum.
The previous structure that came down for the mansion had most recently been home to the Infant Welfare Society of Chicago—whose property fronted Halsted Street just to the west. The former Infant Welfare Society property on the Halsted Street side—where the Philip D. Armour Child and Family Center operated from 1970 until 2005—now houses a two-story building that contains, among other things, a One Medical Group doctor's office.
While the palatial house at 1932 N. Burling St. is by far the largest, relatively new and opulent luxury residences line many of the north-south residential blocks heading south from Armitage Avenue—particularly Burling and Orchard streets. Burling, Orchard, and Howe streets in that area run in long uninterrupted stretches of a full quarter-mile from Armitage Avenue to Willow Street—as the east-west street in between, Wisconsin Street, does not go through.
Walter L. Newberry Math & Science Academy stretches along Willow Street, and fronts both Burling and Orchard streets on the south ends of those long stretches of lavish residences.
As to the sale price for the house, it turns out to be a bargain. The sellers wanted more than $50 million.
Sotheby's said they could not release any information about the buyers.
A palatial house surrounded by dining, theatre, and an eclectic history
The stretch of Halsted Street directly to the west of the mansion, between Armitage and North avenues, is, as a whole quiet and unassuming compared with the Northalsted strip once known as Boystown a couple of miles to the north, or Wells Street in Old Town a jog to the south and east.
While the scene is vibrant and lively near the intersection with Armitage Avenue, with the party scene at the Marquee Lounge and a row of restaurants that spill out into the street with sidewalk dining, the strip heading south becomes more subdued—and maybe a bit enticingly mysterious—as historic housing alternates with restaurants and other establishments that don't always advertise their presence to the street.
Halsted Street between Armitage and North avenues is known in particular for the renowned, but unsigned Alinea Restaurant at 1723 N. Halsted St., where Grant Achatz's ultramodern cooking style helped define the molecular gastronomy movement. Meanwhile, anchoring the stretch toward the south is the venerable Steppenwolf Theatre at 1650 N. Halsted St.
Among so many striking old walk-up apartment buildings—many of which date back to the 1880s—other restaurants from the artisan to the swank from the dot the strip, including Summer House Santa Monica, Boka, Vinci, Willow Room, King Crab House Chicago, Pizza Capri, and Trattoria Gianni.
At 1926 N. Halsted St., the Roger Brown Home and Studio—which has no big sign in the front, but prominently features a ghost ad for the Chicago Daily News on its north wall—houses a special study collection of the work of artist Roger Brown. It is operated by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and open to the public, though its website says it is currently closed for renovation.
In past years, crowds were drawn to the same stretch of Halsted Street for Blue Mesa—Phil Marienthal's pioneering Southwestern American restaurant with its kiva fireplace, New Mexico textiles, and chipotle pepper-spiced entrees—which operated in the present-day Boka space from 1983 until 2000.
The Royal George Theatre; Balena Restaurant and its predecessor, the Landmark Grill & Lounge; Karyn's Fresh Corner and Raw Bistro with their raw vegan fare; and the iconic Gepperth's Meat Market—which closed in 2022 after 115 years—also prominently dotted the strip over the years. The Gepperth's space is now occupied by a Leonidas Chocolate Café. The old Karyn's building has since been torn down for new housing, and the City Council approved plans last year to replace the Royal George Theatre building with the same.
But historically, the strip offered much more than off-Broadway stage theatre and haute cuisine. At 1948 N. Halsted St., a hole-in-the-wall gay bar called the Manhandler Saloon was known for its laid-back atmosphere—and especially its back patio that was coyly described in old reviews as "playful" or "raunchy."
Meanwhile, the basement of the graystone at 1659 N. Halsted St. was the original location of the Odd Obsession Movies video store—a mecca for fans of rare and cult films. At that location circa 2005, Odd Obsession drew a crowd on Saturday nights for an event featuring literary readings, sometimes-risqué experimental films, ironic screenings of 70s-era adult flicks, and lots of wine and cheese—appropriately called "Dirty Movie Night."
The Manhandler closed in 2020 and has since been torn down for a new mixed-use development. Odd Obsession moved to Bucktown after its first couple of years in business—occupying a couple of different spaces on Milwaukee Avenue—and also closed in 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic; its charter space on Halsted Street appears simply to be a garden apartment these days.
Beyond the Chicago Transit Authority Brown Line tracks at the northeast corner of Halsted Street and North Avenue stands the landmark Yondorf Block and Hall—which dates from 1887, and was consigned to a somewhat seedy appearance as the prominent home of Sam's Cut Rate Liquors from 1958 until 1984. Saved from demolition, Yondorf Hall was restored in the late 80s and put to use as administrative offices and rehearsal space for the Steppenwolf Theatre until being sold in recent years. A Fey & Co. Jewelers store occupies the ground floor.
On the other side of North Avenue headed south along Halsted Street, the colorful glazed brick walls of the New City YMCA came down in 2007, and the NewCity residential and retail development with its AMC movie multiplex now stands on its footprint. Farther south still, the last high-rise in the Cabrini-Green public housing development—like the recently-sold mansion less than a mile to its north—also carried an address on Burling Street, specifically 1230 N. Burling St.
The Cabrini-Green building, nicknamed "Scamplife," was torn down in 2011—a year after the house at 1932 N. Burling St. was completed.