$7M Winnetka Mansion Up For Grabs

A mysterious seller is testing whether an extreme overhaul of a Winnetka mansion will pay off.

The six-bedroom, 12,100-square-foot estate at 969 Hill Road is being listed just under $7 million, the Chicago Tribune reported. Jena Radnay, of @properties, is marketing the 1.3-acre property.

Built in 1938, the mansion was designed by architect Solon Spencer Beman and later redesigned by Chicago-based J. Lawton Thies Architects. Early on, it was owned by grain broker Edwin Taylor Maynard, who died in 1953. Donald S. Perkins, who was chairman and CEO of grocer Jewel Companies for a decade, later owned the property for 35 years. Perkins sold the mansion in 2013 for $2.68 million before he passed away in 2015.

The current seller, who bought the property from Perkins, is a land trust that shields its beneficiary from public records.

It’s hard to say whether the home will fetch its hefty asking price. Similar large residential spreads on the North Shore have sat on the market and required price cuts from their initial listings to sell. But many of the high-end homes that are slow to sell still require renovations to bring them up to the buyer’s standards. That is unlikely to be the case for the Hill Road estate, Radnay predicts.

“This is turnkey restoration perfection,” she told the outlet, adding that the seller spared no expense on the renovation.

Still, other homes near the top of the market in the suburbs have undergone big price cuts in recent weeks. In Lake Bluff, seller Lisa Zenni last month chopped $1 million off the asking price of her 10,000-square-foot home on a 12-acre lot, down from nearly $20 million when it was first listed in 2018.

The 969 Hill Road estate has six full bathrooms, three half baths, a library, conservatory that overlooks the garden, recreation and media room and a billiard area. Outside is a brand new pool and spa, tailored patio areas off the living spaces and a guest house.

— Quinn Donoghue