Playboy Mansion Chicago Condo,Estate of the Day

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
May 3rd 2010 at 1:01PM

Her'es where it all began, the first Playboy mansion on Chicago's Gold Coast, where you can now buy a condo that is up for sale. The Victorian-style mansion was built back in 1903 and designed by James Gamble Rogers for surgeon George Snow Isham. Playboy founder Hugh Hefner turned the home into the first Playboy mansion and used it for parties and events from 1959 until the mid-1970s when he decamped for Los Angeles. The company later leased the mansion to the Art Institute for student housing and in 1989 it was donated to the museum. But as Hef has found with his Holmby Hills mansion, upkeep is expensive. Struggling under the burden, the Art Institute sold it to developer Bruce Abrams in 1993. Abrams gutted the home and renovated it into seven separate units. Today's home is the only unit in the building that leads out to the property's garden and it has a private patio. The three-bedroom 3,900-square-foot unit has beautiful architectural details like ornate moldings, built-in shelving and curved archways. This slice of Playboy history is listed at $2.9 million.

[via Chicago Tribune]

Gallery: Chicago's Playboy Mansion Condo

Tags: chicago, condo, estate of the day, gold coast, hugh hefner, playboy

Filed under: Estates

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Dennis May 4th 2010 5:19PM

And What No Bunnies?

It's nothing even close to the old days when I was there for the Parties..,Only the outside is the same..

It will be similar when Hef Dies in Cal... as does happen to all Of those Mansions...

W/B Ironic if some Famous Lesbian-Like Ellen D bought Hef's current place ..

From the Look of Him? He may leave us sooner, rather than later..

In the Words of Famous Bob Hope

Thanks For the Memories, Hef..

Sidney Friedman May 4th 2010 8:51PM

Way back in the day, there was a hole in the living room floor with a
fire pole which one could slide down to the swimming pool in the
basement. I doubt it's still there. I have an aunt who worked for
Playboy in the 1960's as an art director and she has stories, lots of
stories.

The irony is that the Cardinal's mansion (Catholic Church) was and is right across the street.

http://www.sidneyfriedman.com

Spectacular Bid May 4th 2010 9:56PM

I lived a couple blocks away for several years from this famed place which has been keep (since going condo) in a truly wonderful condition in the neighborhood. It was cited in a prior comment about the Cardinal's residence being nearby. True it is physically on the east side of the same street - but three blocks north.

That Gold Coast area has changed a lot in the last decade with many lovely old, architecturally distinct, and timeless homes having been reclaimed from near death while other have been razed in lieu of soulless brownstones. (Not as bad however as the assorted streets between Lincoln Park and Old Town. The stuff of architectural nightmares!)

Next door to the Playboy Mansion used to be two lovely - but very run down - places which drifted down until being rented out in multiple cheap apartments. Both buildings were snatched up, razed and a massive bland as paste single but double-wide structure was built. It detracts from the lovely facade of the Playboy mansion if you do a compare and contrast.

A few homes down (going south on N. State Pkwy) is what had been the old Ambassador West hotel [it's sister, the Ambassador East, is still there and across the street, was used for Alfred Hitchcock's 1959 classic North by Northwest] was restored and converted to condos not too many years ago. Another couple blocks away is the huge and very regal McKim, Mead & White designed mansion for the McCormick family. That now too is a series of luxury condos.

Still its not hard to find many rundown residences - even across the street from the Playboy mansion which may surprise some who think the area exudes manicured perfection - which it doesn't. Price wise with the location, amenities, the history and compared to other prices in the area the place is well priced.

By the way the comment above regarding the irony if a lesbian would buy it isn't really worth giving a counterpoint. However suffice it to say that Hef wouldn't object and frankly would champion such a woman's decision to live her life that way. Hefner - like him or hate him - has been a civil rights proponent so the occupation of that former mansion by anyone gay isn't as ironic.

Irony would be said person purchased the John Birch Society headquarters.