Hemingway's Boyhood Home Under Sales Contract
OAK PARK, Ill. (CBS) -- Ernest Hemingway's boyhood home in Oak Park has been sold.
As WBBM Newsradio's Pat Cassidy reports, the Clarence and Grace Hemingway home, at 600 N. Kenilworth Ave. in Oak Park, is currently owned by the Ernest Hemingway foundation as a three-flat dwelling. The foundation purchased the home from a private owner in 2002.
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The house was listed last February for $525,000 with Baird and Warner and is now under a sales contract. No details have been released on the buyer, who has the option to keep it as a three-flat or restore it as a single-family home.
The foundation had the idea of turning the home back to its original glory and using it for foundation events, readings, educational events and other functions pertaining to its mission. However, the organization found the uses were not attainable, Steve Scheuring of Baird & Warner said in a February interview.
The home was designed by architect Henry G. Fiddelke, in collaboration with Grace Hall Hemingway, Ernest's mother. The Hemingway family moved to the house in 1906, and apparently it was in this home that Ernest recovered from his war wounds and the romantic misfortune he later writes about in his semi-autographical novel, "A Farewell to Arms."
"The building was built originally as a glorious home for entertaining," said Scheuring. "Ernest's mother was really the one that took charge in assisting the design of the home. It once had a music room off the north side and she (Grace) held music events in the home while the front two rooms off the entry foyer were his father's physician offices."
The house is currently a three-flat, yet the main floor living room is still the original size and is beautiful, Scheuring said.
Scheuring says the Foundation was looking for a buyer who appreciates the home's historic value and treat it accordingly.
Oak Leaves contributed to his report, via the Sun-Times Media Wire.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2012. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
