Last week we found a folder of promotional materials for Sandburg Village that surely date back to the late 1960s. Earlier today I scanned this list of finishes and amenities for the apartments at Eliot House, the 28-story, 323-unit high-rise at 1255 N Sandburg Ter, completed in 1965.
Key features for an “ideal home-in-town” at Eliot House included:
- “Abundant large closets with bi-fold doors”
- “Private sun terraces”
- “Panoramic wall-to-wall windows”
- “All electric fully equipped kitchens with counter tops, wood cabinets, breakfast bar in all studio and many 1-bedroom apartments”
- “Geneva Kitchen Cabinets of steel with embossed finish, rubber covered wire shelving”
- “Easy to maintain asphalt tile floors”
The amenities list is pretty good — the building featured laundry rooms, high-speed elevators, underground parking, regular window washing, mobile security, a door staff, a receiving room, a locker room, pram and bicycle storage, and a 24-hour maintenance staff. Sandburg Village as a whole offered a landscaped plaza with kiosks and fountains, an Olympic-sized swimming pool, a beauty parlor and barber shop, maid services, a florist, French hand laundry, physicians’ offices, a playground, and four tennis courts.
These days, Eliot House is a condo building, and homes range in price from the $140s to $340s for one-bedrooms with 739 to 1,200 square feet. The median property tax for the building is $2,161, the 225th highest price among buildings in Old Town. 1255 N Sandburg Ter gets a “Walker’s Paradise” score of 95 and an “Excellent Transit” score of 89 from WalkScore.com.
