A five-bedroom, 6,100-square-foot vintage brick mansion in Lincoln Park that former Chicago White Sox pitcher Jack McDowell once owned sold on March 24 for $2.12 million.
McDowell, 57, pitched for the White Sox from 1987 until 1994, and was a three-time All-Star and a Cy Young Award winner. After his 13-year Major League Baseball career ended in 1999, McDowell continued playing guitar in a rock band. In 2021, he managed a summer collegiate baseball team in Burlington, N.C. — not far from his home base in Charlotte.
In Lincoln Park, McDowell paid $450,000 in 1991 for the two-story house. He sold it in 2002 for $975,000 to the couple who just sold it.
The sellers expanded the mansion in 2005 with a 3,500-square-foot addition. Situated on an extra-wide, 38-foot lot, the mansion has 5-1/2 bathrooms, an attached and heated garage, custom woodwork, millwork, hardwood floors throughout, 10-foot ceilings on the main level, nine-foot ceilings elsewhere, an original front door and mantel and four original stained glass windows.
Other features include a Christopher Peacock kitchen with soapstone countertops, a large workout room on the lower level, an au pair suite on the lower level, seven skylights and a wall of windows to the south. Outside are three decks and a garage roof deck with cedar decking.
“(This) is a very special home for many reasons besides the obvious (ones) — a 38-foot-wide city lot, an attached heated garage and proximity to Armitage Avenue and Adams Park,” listing agent Monique Pieron of @properties told Elite Street. “My sellers added 3,500 square feet to the original home, and it was a labor of love creating a 6,000-square-foot-plus home to raise their children. They worked with a carpenter to preserve the original woodwork and duplicate it throughout the addition to maintain some of the original character by preserving the original fireplace and added some stained glass. They also added floor-to-ceiling windows and doors facing south, opening up to a huge side deck to allow for abundant natural light. They added seven skylights, allowing for natural light all day long, which is very unusual in older vintage homes. You would never be able to build this level of quality home today for anywhere near where it sold for.”
The mansion first was listed in February for $2.295 million. It went under contract just eight days later.
Public records do not yet identify the buyers. However, Emily Sachs Wong of @properties, who represented the buyers, told Elite Street that “it was a fantastic house with lots of wide, open spaces, in a wonderful location close to the kids’ park.”
The mansion had a $32,980 property tax bill in the 2021 tax year.
Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.
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