LINCOLN PARK — The William Wieboldt House, 639 W. Deming Place, has gone on the market at an asking price of $6.25 million.
Listed this week by @properties, the building constructed by Robert Berlin in 1887 has 8,500 square feet, six bedrooms, five bathrooms and two half baths.
Considered "historically and architecturally significant," it sits on an oversize lot, 50 feet by 180 feet, and boasts a sunroom, a spa-like master suite, an outdoor patio and terrace and a coach house that could function as a work studio.
Realtor Tom Moran, however, said, "We're selling it as a full rehab," in that it's currently divided into four apartments and the coach house. Realtors have already made contact with Savane Properties, he added, which specializes in such projects, so it can be renovated according to specifications. Tax breaks would be available, as it's part of a landmark district, but that would also place limits on what could be done with the exterior.
Moran said it could potentially rival the Wrigley Mansion, which also went on the market this year in Lincoln Park.
It's part of the Arlington-Deming District recognized as a Chicago Landmark 10 years ago. Its designation as a city landmark stated that the "earliest buildings in the district date from the years immediately after the Chicago Fire of 1871, when this portion of then-independent Lake View Township served as refuge for displaced Chicago families." It specifically cited "several of Chicago's wealthy entrepreneurs, including William Wieboldt of department-store fame."
According to a 1954 Tribune obituary following his death at 97, Wieboldt was born in Germany in 1857 and came to Chicago at 14 in 1871. He survived the Great Chicago Fire and wrote his parents about it in a letter that has been preserved.
He opened what would soon become a chain of Wieboldt's department stores in 1883 and became a millionaire with the motto: "Be a friendly man and furnish friendly service to assure success." He also was recorded as saying, "My heart is in the neighborhood store. Then I'm part of the community."
The building is also listed in the "AIA Guide to Chicago" for its "vaguely Italian facade ... topped by a determinedly German Baroque third-floor gable."
