HYDE PARK — The historic mansion that was the site of a 1929 holiday shootout between a coal baron’s family and a would-be robber is up for sale in Hyde Park.
The red brick colonial revival-style mansion at 5145 S. University Ave. was once the home of Arthur Allais, president of the Columbus Coal and Mining Co., and as you would expect of a coal magnate, it’s pretty lavish.
There are eight bedrooms, four with their own private bathrooms. The entire house spans more than 5,200 square feet and it’s hard to call any of the rooms small. At every turn their seems to be room for a marble fireplace, a solarium or French doors leading out to a rooftop patio.
It’s the sort of specs that are the norm for listings among Kenwood’s blocks of mansions, but is rare in Hyde Park, particularly at the list price of $1.2 million.
That lavishness is what likely attracted a would-be robber to the house on the evening of Dec. 21, 1929.
According to newspaper reports from the time, Allais’ house was full of his adult children and his grandkids, with his wife sick in bed, when the maid opened the door to find a man pointing a revolver at her face.
The robber forced the family upstairs, locking the two grandchildren in a bathroom. While Allais was interrogated at gunpoint on where the cash and valuables were in the house, his son, Louis, inched over to a dresser. With his hands behind his back, Louis Allais rooted around and secretively loaded a revolver in the drawer with three bullets.
As the robber turned away, the younger Allais raised the revolver only to hear a click of the hammer hitting an empty chamber when he pulled the trigger. The robber wheeled around and fired a shot that missed Louis’ head by two inches.
The main stairway was the scene of a shootout in 1929 when a robber tried to get into the house and Louis Allais chased him off with two revolvers.
The robber tried to escape down the stairs. Louis Allais followed in pursuit, now armed with a second fully-loaded revolver from the same dresser. The robber turned when he hit the first floor firing back and then bolted out the front door. Louis followed the robber as far as the front porch and emptied both guns as the robber fled to a waiting car.
No one was injured and it’s unclear in the news reports from the time whether the robber was ever caught.
The house hasn’t changed much since the Allais family chased off their would-be robber. The rich woodwork has remained intact, but the kitchen has gotten a makeover.
The house is a colonial revival style on a corner lot in Hyde Park.
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here.
