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Languishing Frank Lloyd Wright Homes in Kenwood Both Have Buyers

By Sam Cholke | September 29, 2014 5:17am
 Kenwood neighbors are at a loss for how to preserve two Frank Lloyd masterpiece homes after rejecting an offer by Jennifer Pritzker to turn them into bed-and-breakfasts.
Wright Homes in Kenwood
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HYDE PARK — After nearly two years on the market, two early Frank Lloyd Wright homes in Kenwood may have new owners.

The George Blossom house at 4858 S. Kenwood Ave. is now under contract after the asking price was sharply cut to $850,000 from $1.5 million when it was first listed in October 2012.

The neighboring Warren McArthur house sold in June for an estimated $925,000 after being reduced from $1.48 million to Andrew Cleland, a professor in molecular engineering at the University of Chicago.

Both homes are considered “bootlegs” Wright designed off the books while working for Adler and Sullivan in 1892.

The Blossom house in particular is in rough shape with a crumbling porch and buckling stained glass windows. An architect estimated last year that the home needs a minimum of $2.5 million to be fully restored.

There was optimism among preservationists that both would be restored when Jennifer Pritzker made an offer to convert the two homes into a bed and breakfast in August 2013.

Neighbors nixed the plan in November and broker Louisa McPharlin, who grew up in the McArthur House, slowly began trimming $300,000 from the asking price.

It is unclear whether Cleland or the potential owner of the Blossom house intend to restore or modernize the homes interiors.

Cleland, whose McArthur house remains in near-original condition on the inside, and McPharlin were not immediately available to comment.

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