A 10-room Gold Coast mansion — one of just seven mansions remaining on North Lake Shore Drive — sold Friday for $4.25 million, almost six years after it was listed for $17 million.
The buyer of the 12,000-square-foot French chateau-inspired mansion, Gold Coast resident and Hillenbrand Inc. senior vice president of corporate development J. Michael Whitted, said he plans to renovate the mansion and convert it back to a single-family home.
The sale brings to a close the International College of Surgeons’ long effort to sell the four-story mansion at 1516 N. Lake Shore Drive, which it purchased in 1947 for $85,000 and which it long had used as office and meeting space.
The group previously tried to develop the mansion and an adjacent property it owns in the 1990s, but was stymied by the mansion’s landmark status. It then placed the mansion on the market for $17 million in 2015, eventually cutting the asking price to $6 million in 2019. The group made its final price reduction to $5.75 million in April, striking a deal with Whitted in June.
“We are excited to embark on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to restore the iconic Blair Mansion to a single-family home,” Whitted told Elite Street. “Our plans are to restore this historic home protecting the craftsmanship and priceless historic details, while updating it with modern conveniences so a family of today can enjoy it.”
Whitted said he is “looking forward to contributing to a unique part of Chicago history by restoring this historic Lake Shore Drive home for generations to come. It’s a significant commitment to the city we love…and to the Gold Coast historical district in which we passionately believe.”
Whitted said it remains to be seen whether his family occupies the mansion or sells it.
– Original Credit: Crystal Tran
The mansion was built in 1913 for Edward T. and Ruby McCormick Blair, and it’s one of the only Chicago-area structures designed by the McKim, Mead & White architectural firm. A 1947 Tribune article stated that the mansion “has been called one of the finest examples of Italian architecture in the country,” with an exterior of Bedford stone and an interior featuring imported woodwork and hand-carved Italian marble fireplaces and doorways.
Ruby Blair died in 1917, and Edward T. Blair lived in the mansion until his death in 1939. The mansion briefly was owned in the mid-1940s by Joel Goldblatt, the president of Goldblatt Brothers, and his brother, Louis, before they sold it to the International College of Surgeons.
Because the mansion long has been used as office space, it likely will require considerable renovations to convert it to single-family use. For instance, its six bathrooms lack bathing units such as showers or tubs. The mansion also has nine fireplaces, 10-foot-tall wrought iron doors, intricate moldings, stained-glass windows, marble staircases, elaborate plaster ceilings, carved stone mantelpieces and herringbone-patterned hardwood floors.
Whitted said it’s “too early” to specify what types of enhancements he will make to the home.
The property also includes a two-story coach house.
– Original Credit: Crystal Tran
The International College of Surgeons continues to own the adjacent historic mansion at 1524 N. Lake Shore, which houses a museum of surgical science. With the sale of the mansion at 1516 N. Lake Shore, the group relocated its offices to the museum building next door.
The mansion long has had tax-exempt status. So with the sale, it will return to the tax rolls.
Crystal Tran of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago was the listing agent.
Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.
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