Highland Park Mansion Overlooking Ravine Sells For $3 Million

HIGHLAND PARK, IL — A six-bedroom stone mansion overlooking a ravine in east Highland Park sold Monday for $3 million.

The 9,500-square-foot home was built in 2003 by the award-winning Oak Park-based architect Garret Eakin. Eakin is an adjunct professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Triton College and the designer of more than 150 architectural projects.

The 1.33-acre property sits on Cary Avenue just west of Sheridan Road, about a block from Rosewood Beach. The French Normandy-style design has a long, formal driveway that ends at a landscaped front courtyard featuring a classical sculpture.

It includes hardwood flooring throughout its 15 rooms, with floor-to-ceiling windows in its great room looking out to the back patio and wooded surroundings.

The bluestone patio features a year-round infinity hot tub overlooking the back yard and wooded ravine.

The property also includes a wood-paneled library that opens up to a sheltered porch, a finished basement with a wet bar and family room and a wine cellar. It includes six fireplaces and an attached garage with room for three cars.

"From the impressive first floor master suite and chef's kitchen to the luxe library and wine cellar," its listing boasted, "this one-of-a-kind home is immersed in provincial splendor."

The sellers were identified as Laurie and Cary Glenner, a former chairman of Highland Park's Zoning Board of Appeals and member of the Plan and Design Commission.

The Glenners purchased the house in August 2005 for $2.71 million, records show. According to its listing, they are its first owners. In addition to their Highland Park home, the Wisconsin State Farmer reported in February 2018 that the Glenners had owned a home in Walworth County for more than 25 years when they sought to block the expansion of a nearby dairy farm.

The new owners were not immediately identified in public records.

According to the Lake County Assessor's Office, the property's estimated market value for taxing purposes is about $2.6 million, and its annual property tax bill is more than $35,000.

Records show Monday's sale of the Cary Avenue property is Highland Park's fourth most expensive of the year so far.

The third most expensive of 2020 was the $3.75 million sale in August of a 2016-built home on the site of the original Fort Sheridan pumping station, the second most expensive was the $4.5 million sale of a 13,000-square-foot lakefront contemporary in September.

The most expensive home sale of 2020 so far in Highland Park was the July purchase of the 23-acre horse farm at 2000 Ridge Road for $4.8 million by Mike Gamson, a former executive at LinkedIn who last year became CEO of the software company Relativity.

• Address: 143 Cary Ave., Highland Park, Illinois
• Built: 2003
• Lot Size: 1.33 acres
• Square Feet: 9,492
• Bedrooms: 6
• Bathrooms: 7 full, 2 half
• Last Sold: $2.71 million in August 2005
• First Listed: $4.45 million in February 2016
• Sale Price: $3 million on Dec. 7

Listing information originally appeared on realtor.com. For more information and photos, click here. Find more recently sold homes in Highland Park here.