Yo took advantage of the unseasonable weather yesterday to take a long, casual stroll around the South Loop. When we popped over to the intersection of 21st Street and Calumet Avenue to check on construction at the loft condo conversion of an old Chess Records building, we found ourselves standing in front of The Wheeler Mansion, decked out in its best fall decorations.
The Wheeler is one of the last remaining mansions in the central area to survive the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, and it’s one of the city’s best examples of Second Empire architecture.
The home was originally built for Calvin T. Wheeler, former president of the Chicago Board of Trade. It was maintained until the early 1900s, when the South Loop became more industrial, and the building was sold to a publishing company. The property was eventually abandoned and slated for demolition in 1997, when Historic Real Estate purchased the house and restored it. It reopened in 1999 as a bed and breakfast with four suites and seven rooms. The plaque in front of the building states that Mayor Daley designated the Wheeler Mansion, officially known as the Wheeler-Kohn House, a Chicago landmark in 1998.