The nine-bedroom, 13,705-square-foot Theurer-Wrigley House in the Lincoln Park area sold Friday for $4.65 million.
Designed by architect Richard Schmidt and built in 1896 for brewer Joseph Theurer, the massive late-Italian Renaissance-style mansion today bears the Wrigley moniker after the prominent gum family, which purchased it in 1911 and owned it until 1984. In the late 1970s, Chicago officials briefly considered buying the mansion and turning it into the official mayor’s residence.
Attorney Ted Tetzlaff purchased the mansion in 2004 for $9 million.
The house, also known as the Wrigley mansion, became the subject of a foreclosure action in 2011, and Tetzlaff’s lender, Bank of America, took ownership of the mansion in 2016.
Last January, the bank listed the mansion for $7.15 million. Obviously a highly motivated seller, the bank made no fewer than six price decreases over the next 12 months, to $6.999 million, $6.65 million, $5.985 million, $5.5 million, $5.2 million and $4.9 million. The mansion went under contract last month.
Features in the mansion include six full baths, three half-baths, four fireplaces, a full basement, a grand foyer and staircase, a solarium, a wine bar, game rooms, staff quarters, a mahogany-paneled library, gold leaf coffered ceilings, a walk-in vault and a top-floor ballroom with views of Lincoln Park and Lake Michigan. The property also has a three-story coach house containing two residential units.
Public records do not yet identify the buyer. Listing agent Anthony Disano of Parkvue Realty said that the buyer is a land trust whose beneficiary is not yet known.
“It was bought through a trust, and we don’t know what the intentions of the buyer are,” Disano said. “It was such a pleasure for our team to be able to list this iconic mansion and we’re excited to see what the future holds for it.”
In 2003, developer Nicholas Jannes, who purchased the mansion from the Wrigley family, had listed it for $14 million. At the time, that was a city record for an asking price. Jannes ultimately accepted the $9 million purchase offer from Tetzlaff.
Bob Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.
