If you’re a hard-core Joycean, as I once was, the word “stately” immediately calls to mind the opening of Ulysses and the rites of “stately, plump Buck Mulligan.” That’s especially true as Bloomsday nears.
Stately is a staple in the real estate vocabulary, presumably because some aspire to an estate in a state of stateliness.
A search on Redfin discloses twelve results for “stately” homes in Evanston, 8 in Glencoe, 6 in Highland Park, 7 in Kenilworth, 1 in Lake Bluff, 14 in Lake Forest, 3 in Northfield, 5 in Wilmette and 7 in Winnetka. Highwood is currently – perhaps permanently – out of stately. On a per capita basis, tiny Kenilworth is the capital of stateliness.
The phrase “operational definition” is another that resonates from my Joycean days. Prepare to be disappointed if you expect listing photos to give you an operatonal definition of “stately.”
Come Bloomsday, the “stately English manor” pictured above may have just passed the one-year mark on the market.