Frank Lloyd Wright House Sells For $600,000 In Wilmette

WILMETTE, IL — A Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in Wilmette that requires significant work sold within a few months of its listing for $600,000 — about a third below its listing price. Cases involving the ownership of the property are currently pending before the Cook County Circuit Court and Illinois 1st District Appellate Court, records show.

The longtime home of gallery owner Betty Sobel, who died in 1999, and prominent architect Walter Sobel, who died in 2014, was sold on Oct. 31. It had been listed for sale in July for the first time in more than six decades with an asking price of $900,000.

The Frank J. Baker House at 507 Lake Ave. was built by Frank Lloyd Wright during the same period as the Robie House in Hyde Park. According to a report from Wilmette's preservation commission, the 4,800-square-foot home is the largest designed by Wright in the village.

Baker was the co-founder and first president of First National Bank of Wilmette, according to a history of Illinois banking. He had earlier been responsible for the electrification of the North Shore while working for Commonwealth Edison magnate Samuel Insull, Mr. Sobel said in a 2013 interview.

Then based in Oak Park and commuting by horseback, Wright took the house's plans to Baker after a commission from William Guthrie of Tennessee fell through. The design represents the "crescendo" of Wright's Oak Park years, according to a historic registry application.

The Sobels, the home's late third owners, purchased the Baker House in 1957. In an interview ahead of his 100th birthday, Mr. Sobel said he felt as if the house had "found" him and his wife.

"We've held concerts, all kinds of discussions and parties, and mentoring meetings for young [American Institute of Architects] architects," he told Chicago Architect magazine.

The home's spacious two-story living room has leaded glass windows and a cantilevered roof. It’s lined with bookcases with one of its three fireplaces at one end and a wall of windows at the other. There's also a kitchen designed by Mr. Sobel and a dining room on the first level, while the second level includes a master suite, balcony, four other bedrooms and an office.

Read more: 'Magnificent' Frank Lloyd Wright Home Listed At $900K In Wilmette

According to Cook County records, the new owners are Amy Bauer, who works in technology sales, and her husband Eric Bauer, who works in the pharmaceuticals industry. They plan a multi-year rehab with Wilmette architect Mike Venechuk and Oak Park-based contractor Pam Whitehead that is expected to cost more than $800,000, according to Crain's Chicago Business, which first reported the sale last month. Mrs. Bauer told Crain's they aim "to see the house come back to its original glory."

The home is designated a local village landmark, meaning any alternation or demolition of the property will require approval from the Wilmette Historic Preservation Commission.

That's in contrast to Glencoe, where an earlier Wright design is at risk of demolition by its new owners due to its only having an honorary form of landmark protection. There, the new owners of the Edward Dart-designed home at 350 Sunrise Circle started demolition of the honorary Glencoe landmark last month, while a demolition permit is pending approval of final building plans from the owners of 748 Greenwood Ave. to raze the former home of Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, the first commissioner of Major League Baseball, and notable artist Earl Gross.

More: Glencoe Accepts Application To Demolish Frank Lloyd Wright House

The Baker House in Wilmette is also at the center of at least two lawsuits in Cook County courts. The first was filed by ATG Trust Company in April 2016 against the Sobels five children. The trust company filed another suit in May 2017 against Richard Sobel and Robert Sobel along with any occupants, and the two suits were consolidated later that year but severed in 2018, according to court records.

Following a May 2019 filing of an eviction affidavit, the Sobels appealed to an Illinois appeals court. The appeal remains pending and no oral argument has been scheduled in on that case, while the other remained on the status call of Cook County Circuit Judge Eve Reilley as of last month.

According to a notice of the suit filed on Richard Sobel's behalf with the Cook County Recorder of Deeds, ATG Trust Company is "not the owner of the property, and may not sell it."

ATG claims ownership over the property through an "alleged deed dated July 17, 1980 purportedly transferring the property from Walter H. Sobel (Walter) to Betty Dobs Sobel (Betty)," according to the filing. The trust company became trustee of Betty's trust in October 2006, seven years after her death, it said.

But Sobel's attorney suggests the deed was never properly notarized, so the deed was invalid. If this was true, the property would have transferred to Walter for the final 15 years of his life. After that it would become part of his trust — not the ATG trust that ended up selling it to the Bauers, he argued.

"The allegedly sealed deed and the unsealed deed appear to be the same, including the same time date [4 Aug 1980 10:42AM] except for the fact that one is sealed and the other is not, a physical impossibility," according to the notice, which calls it "utterly impossible" for the two alleged deeds to be timestamped at precisely the same moment.

Arnold Landis, the listed attorney for Robert and Richard Sobel on the appeal, has not commented in response to an inquiry about both cases and the notice he filed on the title to the house, which was recorded in October. ATG has not responded to an inquiry about the home.

• Address: 507 Lake Ave, Wilmette, Illinois
• Sale Price: $600,000
• Square Feet: 4,800
• Lot Size: 0.59 acres
• Bedrooms: 5
• Bathrooms: 3 full, 1 half
• Built: 1909
• Last Sold: 1957
• First Listed: $900,000 in July 2019

Listing information originally appeared on realtor.com. For more information and photos, click here.