'Sixteen Candles' House Sells for $1.135 Million

From the July 15, 2018, Chicago Tribune by Bob Goldsborough.

The six-bedroom brick house in northwest Evanston, Illinois, where the 1984 classic teen comedy "Sixteen Candles" was filmed finally sold June 28 for $1.135 million, after two years on and off the market.

The three-story, 3,250-square-foot house is in a neighborhood that has been popular with filmmakers. In "Sixteen Candles" it was the cinematic home of the movie's main character, played by Molly Ringwald, and her family.

Built in 1931, the house has two fireplaces, a media room on the third floor, a new kitchen with a breakfast room and an attached two-car garage.   Outside are a terrace, an outdoor kitchen and a wood-burning fireplace.

Public records do not yet identify the buyers.

Missed Your Chance to Live Somewhere Famous.  --Cooter

'Brady Bunch' House Up for Sale: Marsha Would Not be Happy

From the July 20, 2018, Chicago Tribune.

The home featured in the opening and closing scenes of "The Brady Bunch" is for sale for $1.885 million.

Records show that George and Violet McCallister bought the two-bedroom, three bathroom split-level home in the Studio City neighborhood of Los Angeles in 1973 for $61,000.

The agent says the home attracts 30 to 50 visitors a day.  The owners died and their children are selling the property.

Quite the Markup.  --Cooter

Blacksmith Phineas Vaughan-- Part 2: About That Anvil

His wife, Phebe Vaughan (1830-1898) is also buried beside him on the plot with the anvil.

His home was on DeKalb's Main Street on the north side between Third and Fourth streets.  It was later moved to North second Street adjacent to the Russell Smith Garage at 212 N. Second Street.

He has a big headstone at Evergreen Cemetery with the anvil he used in the back left corner.

I'll have to look for his grave and Evergreen Cemetery the next time I'm in DeKalb, Illinois.  I've never seen an anvil on somebody's grave.

That is, if I can find Evergreen Cemetery.

--CootAnvil

How Would You Like to Own Al Capone's House in Chicago?--

From the Dec. 25, 2008, Chicago Tribune "Notoriety could be a selling point" by Joel Hood.

"Want to own a notorious piece of Chicago history? The modest, red-brick home once owned by Al Capone is expected to hit the market this spring for an estimated $450,000, marking a new chapter for the infamous South Side landmark that has had just two owners since the death of Capone's mother in 1952."

Barbara Hogsette, 71, has owned the house since 1963, but plans to move to California.

The house has stood at 7244 Prairie Avenue for over a century. Cook County records show that Al Capone bought the home in August 1923 for $5,500.

Capone was in his early 20s when he moved to Chicago from Brooklyn but he already had bootlegging, gambling and prostitution rackets going on in town.

He wanted a safe haven for his mother Teresa and she and his wife Mae signed the deed. Nonetheless, Chicago police kept watch on the house and, in December 1927 were outside the home waiting to arrest Capone if he stepped outside. He later left and wasn't arrested, but continued his operations elsewhere for four more years before being arrested for tax evasion.

You can see pictures and get more information at the My Al Capone Museum site at www.myalcaponemuseum.com.

Al Capone Slept Here? --Cooter

The Mysterious 29: Did Frank Lloyd Wright Build Them?

From the July 6, 2008, Chicago Tribune by Blair Kamin, Tribune Critic.

There are 29 houses in the Chicago suburbs whose architect may or may not have been Frank Lloyd Wright. There are one each in Glen Ellyn and Wilmette, two in Berwyn (as Svenghoolie would say, "BERWY!!") and 25 in River Forest (including 24 of the 26 houses in the 700 block of William Street). Imagine a F.L. Wright subdision.

The problem is that there is little documentation. As such, the team exploring it looks for Wright's "artistic signature," like a meandering route to a front door.

Of course, these homes could have been designed by Wright-influenced architects or even ones working for him.

To Wright or Not To Wright. That Sure Would Be Neat to Find Out You Were Living In a Frank Lloyd Wright House. --Cooter

Got an Extra $525,000?: Hemingway's House For Sale-- Part 1

From the Feb.26th Chicago Tribune "Hemingway's House in Wright's Shadow" by Ted Gregory.

Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Illinois, and spent much of his first twenty years in that town outside of Chicago. His boyhood home, essentially a three-flat, was put up for sale a couple weeks ago for $525,000.

The 4,200 square-foot home was designed in part by Hemingway's mother, Grace, who lived there until 1936, eight years after her husband committed suicide in their second-floor bedroom.

After that, it was divided into three apartments. In 2001, the Hemingway Foundation bought the home for $525,000. There were plans to turn it into "a unique and dynamic cultural center" but that didn't come to pass.

Ernest Hemingway lived here from age 7 to 17. However, his prominence is overshadowed by that of another Oak Park resident, Frank Lloyd Wright.

I'd Buy It, But Have to Put Gas in the Tank. --Cooter