According to real estate reports, the quaint Chicago apartment where newlyweds Ernest Hemmingway and Hadley Richardson lived in 1021 — just after their Wisconsin honeymoon — is now for sale. The apartment is located on the fourth floor of the multi-family building in the city’s tony Gold Coast and is currently enumerated for $2 million. The senior vice president at Marcus & Millichap, Steve Rachman, represents the listing.
The property’s layout showcases two studio apartments with an entrance and a five-bedroom, four-and-a-half-bath apartment in the main house. Additionally, a separate three-bedroom, one-bath coach house on the property features a two-car garage. This is the first time in 55 years that the property, originally built as a single-family home in 1895, has been put on the market. The building has been functioning as a multiple-unit home for 30 years.
Rachman clarified that while the apartment for sale is on the fourth floor, it is on the third floor above street level. Hemmingway and Richardson occupied the apartment for approximately one year. Following their time together in the apartment, Hemmingway and Richardson eventually separated. The Nobel Prize-winning author who penned such classics as “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and “The Sun Also Rises” would remarry three times. Before he died in 1961, at 61, Hemmingway also had homes in Cuba and Key West.
Photos taken by Rachman highlight unique features, such as a plaque beside the door commemorating when the great American author and his wife moved into the dwelling. Rachman’s photos also feature a long hallway filled with framed pictures encapsulating many of Hemmingway’s most significant accomplishments. Additional images show the spacious living room, staircase, gorgeous kitchen, one of the voluminous bathrooms, deck, and interior and exterior of the detached coach house.
Rachman says the property has already attracted a burst of interested buyers. Potential buyers have various ideas about what they would do with the property. Rachman said, “There’s straight-up rehabbers, flip-it kind of investors; the couples who are looking at it strictly as a home; and couples looking at it as a home with the potential for income.”
Of course, there are many folks taking note of Hemmingway’s connection to the home. Rachman added, “There is an homage to Hemmingway in the home still, on the first-floor corridor. There’s all kinds of memorabilia and articles and remembrances.”
Rachman said regarding the home’s condition, “The house is habitable but not in pristine condition. There’s been no major capital projects for quite some time.” He continued, “The same person clearly built the adjacent two houses because the window lines are identical on all three structures. Sometime in the 1910s, when GIs started coming back from World War I, it got turned into a rooming house. Like many old structures, it’s been chopped up over time.”
Still, it might behoove rehabbers or developers to make an offer as soon as possible. Currently, there are only 28 properties for sale in the same affluent neighborhood, and this is the only one that still needs to be renovated. The listing could be an incredible steal for the right person who wants to make the place their own!
