Gold Coast Mansion Trades For $4.3M

A Gold Coast mansion with a colorful history of ownership has sold in an off-market deal for $4.3 million, demonstrating the area’s resilience in drawing interest from high-end home buyers even in the face of muted neighborhood demand in recent years.

An unidentified buyer bought the six-bedroom, 8,545-square-foot home on North Astor Street that once belonged to Rosemary Baur, who was known as Chicago’s “richest girl” because she inherited $2.5 million on her 18th birthday in 1929, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The sellers of the vintage Georgian-style mansion were Richard and Sonia McArdle, and the buyer is an opaque land trust, according to public records.

It’s unclear how much the house would have originally been listed for since it was an off-market transaction, but it’s likely that it would have undergone at least one price chop given the pattern in Gold Coast.

In June, a 10,400-square-foot home at 54 East Scott Street sold for $6.5 million, down from $10.2 million when it first hit the market in October 2021. Richard Driehaus’ 8,650-square-foot estate on North Dearborn Street traded for $5.65 million in April after being listed for $6 million five months prior. Another Gold Coast mansion sold in May for about 15 percent less than the original ask, equating to a $5.1 million deal.

The recently sold mansion, built around 1910 and designed by architect Arthur Heun, originally belonged to Monon Railroad President William H. McDoel and his daughter. It was later sold to Bertha Duppler Baur, the widow of Jacob Baur, who had acquired substantial wealth through her late husband’s firm, Liquid Carbonic Co., and ran unsuccessfully for Chicago mayor and Congress in the 1920s and 1930s.

In 1929, the house’s well-known former resident Rosemary Baur inherited her fortune, solidifying her status as “Chicago’s richest girl.” She later married British parliament member Bartle Bull and lived in the mansion after returning to Chicago following her mother’s death in 1967.

While the property stayed in the Baur-Bull family for 85 years until Rosemary’s death, when her estate sold it for $4.3 million, it has changed hands a few times over the years. In 2007, it was acquired by the McArdles for $4.3 million.

The mansion’s property tax bill was $91,835 in the 2021 tax year.

— Quinn Donoghue