If you have a hankering for the lifestyle of the early 20th Century, with live-in servants and marble bathrooms, and plenty of room for guests, there’s a 13-room Tudor mansion going up for sale a block from the lake in South Evanston that you should see.
The former home of trade magazine publisher Herbert A. Vance, at 147 Dempster St., is on the market for less than $3 million. The listing agent is Jackie Mack of Jameson Sotheby’s International Realty.
According to the listing sheet, the house has a total of about 6,479 finished square feet on three floors. But that’s not all. In the rear of the lot is a coach house containing a full kitchen, a bedroom, and a bath.
The house was obviously designed for entertaining, for just inside the front door is a small receiving room, equipped with a bar, that silently says, “Welcome to our home. What can we get you to drink?”
The Living Room
Just a few steps away is a ballroom-sized living room that presently contains a grand piano. At 31 feet by 23 feet, it’s plenty large enough for your guests to mingle before dinner is served.
The dining room
Then just down the hall is the dining room, with a doorway to the butler’s pantry that adjoins the kitchen. The dining room is 25 feet by 19 feet, and the kitchen is 16 by 12.
The main level also contains a 20 by 13 family room, an 11 by 9 breakfast room, an 11 by 7 pantry, and a 14 by 12 library. There’s also a gallery that measures 32 feet by 9 feet.
Upstairs are five bedrooms, including a master suite with a 22 by 19 bedroom and a 7 by 4 walk-in closet. The four upstairs bathrooms have been renovated with Italian marble.
At the rear of the house, there is a bedroom for live-in servants beside a rear stairway to the downstairs kitchen. Another stairway heads in the opposite direction to the spacious attic.
In the basement is a 24-foot-by-13-foot playroom and a room for storage that is 20 by 13.
The coach house at the rear of the property is situated above a two-car garage.
Among the quality features of the home are slate roofs, copper gutters, quarter sawn oak floors, and leaded glass windows.
Nearby the home is the Dempster Street beach at the end of the block, but downtown Evanston and the Main Street and Dempster Street shopping areas are not far away, not to mention two commuter rail lines and the campus of Northwestern University.
While there are no public open houses scheduled for the property, if you are a qualified buyer, you should have little trouble finding a friendly real estate agent who would love to show you the property.
Incidentally, the list price for this home is $2,995,000.
How many unrelated residents?
How many unrelated residents can legally live in this mansion?
Brothel law
Evanston’s notorious law stating only three unrelated adults can live in the same house, apartment, etc., applies to rentals only. I believe homeowners don’t need to worry about that law.
Not true
The ordinance applies to all types of properties.
We hear about it more with regard to rentals because there is no routine inspection of single family properties in Evanston.
— Bill
BTW, U forgot to mention real estate taxes
In 2016 real estate taxes were $42,680, and that was before
the recent D65 referendum. And with the fiscal situation in City of Evanston, D65 & D202,
Cook County and State of Illinois, my guess is that this annual real estate
tax bill will approach, if not exceed $50,000 in the near future.
147 Dempster
The only person who could afford it is Jennifer Pritzker. The city council will of course bend the rules to allow her to turn the property into another bed and breakfast.
Agree that taxes will be a headwind
That said, 2018 assessed value is shockingly low at $1.73 MM.
Is there an assessment break for historic homes? If not, buying near $3MM may put the taxes well north of $50k. My simple math suggests north of $60k with a $2.95MM assessment.
I’m often frustrated that many high end homes in Evanston are seemingly under-assessed, and more modest homes are “fully” assessed.
Nice, but…
I know too many house-poor people to even consider this opportunity.
Yeah, I’m a big talker. I can’t afford to buy curtains for this place, let alone the taxes and insurance.