YoChicago took a breather and sat down next to the Tin Man in Lincoln Park’s Oz Park the other day after spending an hour or so gawking at the starter-castles that have sprouted up in recent years on streets like North Burling, Mohawk and Orchard.
We’re told that at least one of the homes features a 70-foot underground swimming pool inlaid with detailed masonry work, most have massive wine cellars and private tasting rooms and the cost of the exotic wood cabinetry alone in these mega-mansions can be anywhere from $200,000 to $1 million.
Toto, we’re not in Middle America anymore.
The houses (see picture by Joeff Davis), are mostly owned by hedge-fund managers, day traders and CEOs. One insurance industry figure is currently building a single-family home over seven city lots on North Burling Street, while three to five-lot homes are increasingly common. The seven-lot special will feature a room purpose-built just for washing the dog…
The seven-lot manse is being built on the site formerly occupied by the Infant Welfare Society of Chicago, which has been a lifeline to poverty-stricken parents and their babies since the 1970s. We assumed the worst, but the Society tells us it wanted to move to Logan Square, closer to the mostly migrant population it serves.
While we are the first to admit that we were envious of the obscene wealth on display, we have to say that as we cast our eyes over the faux Georgian, French and Venetian masonry monoliths we also felt a little creeped out. The homeowners obviously want to take advantage of the full lot size and build as much house as they can, so as a result, many of the buildings are not set back from the street. We thought they look strangely disproportionate and some of them, with their Roman columns looked more than faintly ridiculous on a wintry Chicago street.
We clicked our ruby slippers, thought of our cute little two-flat and murmured, “There’s no place like home.”