Famed Jazz Age Architect's Lakefront Mansion Sees Price Reduction

WINNETKA, IL — A historically significant lakefront estate in Winnetka designed by a famed Jazz Age architect saw its price reduced to $2 million below its original asking price from more than 2 ½ years ago. The French Provincial-style stone estate on was completed in 1919 is located on 0.58 acres along Lake Michigan a few blocks from downtown Winnetka.

The 6,300-square-foot, five-bedroom two-story home has recently been restored with a team of architects and engineers, according to its listing, which described the property as a "vestige of the historic grand estates of Winnetka."

It was designed by Benjamin Marshall, the designer of the Drake Hotel, South Shore Cultural Center, the Blackstone Hotel, 1550 North State Parkway, the Edgewater Beach Apartments and several other iconic residential towers along East Lake Shore Drive at the Oak Street curve.

Marshall also designed an eccentric Wilmette mansion for himself, spending between $6 million and $12 million in today's dollars to build a pink, Mediterranean-inspired design with a retractable roof, a tropical garden and a Chinese temple completed 1921. Located across Sheridan Road from the site of the Baha'i Temple, Marshall threw lavish parties that attracted notable guests including the Duke of Windsor, playwright Noel Coward and actress Ethel Barrymore and reportedly featured "Gatsby-esque shenanigans involving showgirls."

Marshall died in 1944 at the age of 70, never quite matching the fame of his Gilded Age predecessors Daniel Burnham and Louis Sullivan, despite his role in designing some of Chicago's most recognizable landmarks. Other Marshall-designed residences to recently change hands include, a Wilmette house sold for $3.85 million in February, and a Colonial Revival mansion in the South Side neighborhood of Kenwood first put on the market in 2014 is listed as contingent.

A three-year project to restore and preserve the house, its grounds, the bluff and a 95-foot beach has beautified the property and protected the shoreline, according to the listing. It said the mansion has solid structural elements and has been impeccably maintained and enhanced by the current owners.

The sellers are the married former CEO of mattress company Serta and former vice president of marketing for the Hoffman Estates-based company. They resigned in 2013, a year after a private equity firm purchased the majority of Serta parent company. They first listed the home for sale in February 2016 for more than $7 million.

The mattress executives had purchased the home for $4.4 million in 2005 from disgraced Chicago entrepreneur Michael Ferro and his wife, Jacqueline, according to property records. Mr. Ferro is the former chairman of the parent companies of both the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times. He announced his sudden retirement in March, hours before Fortune reported he groped and forcibly kissed at least two woman without their consent amid unwanted sexual advances.

The 12-room Oak Street home has a finished basement, a three-car garage and heated driveway, three wood-burning fireplaces, Local school districts include Greeley Elementary School, Washburne School and New Trier High School.

The estimated market value of the property is just over $5.1 million, according to the Cook County Assessor's Office, and its 2017 property tax bill was nearly $118,600.

• Address: 480 Oak St, Winnetka, Illinois
• Built: 1919
• Square Feet: 6,341
• Bedrooms: 5
• Bathrooms: 5 full, 1 half
• Last sold: $4.4 million in October 2005
• First listed: $7.25 million in February 2016
• Price reduced: $5.2 million in September 2018

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