Big Historic Prairie Avenue Mansions Sell For $3.9M

A pair of historic mansions on Prairie Avenue will be reverted to residences, after serving as an office for the U.S. Soccer Federation for three decades.

Buyers last week finalized a deal to pay just under $4 million for the 19th-century houses at 1801 and 1811 South Prairie Avenue, Crain’s reported. Compass agent Mariam Moeinzadeh represented the buyers, whose identities haven’t yet been revealed in public records.

The mansions, totaling 29,000 square feet, don’t share a wall, but their coach houses in the back of the lots are adjoined. The buyers, who intend to “return the property back to its original single-family residential use,” according to Meoinzadeh, are unsure if they’ll completely divide the two homes or use them as a singular estate.

The soccer federation took control of the site in 1991, several years before the Prairie Avenue District regained its status as a prime neighborhood in Chicago’s South Loop area. The federation moved to a building on Wacker Drive last year and listed the mansions in January. The properties went under contract in July.

The South Loop’s emergence as a hot neighborhood was certified earlier this year when a Printer’s Row home — a little more than a mile north of the Prairie Avenue District — sold for $4.8 million, the priciest home sale ever for anywhere in Chicago south of the Loop.

The redstone Prairie Avenue mansion, built in 1886, was originally home to hardware retailer Joseph Coleman and his wife Leonora. It was converted into offices for a publishing firm in 1921 and was never again used as a residence.

The limestone house, built in 1892, was originally home to piano and organ manufacturer William Kimball and his wife Evalyne. It became a boarding house in 1921 and an architects’ club in 1924, the outlet reported, citing historical documents from the Glessner House across the street.

The mansions have been used in conjunction since 1947, when they were purchased by the Domestic Engineering publishing company.

— Quinn Donoghue