5740 S Harper Ave, Chicago, IL 60637

This beautifully renovated home was a part of Hyde Park's first planned community, built way back in the 1880s, and then known as Rosalie Villas. To this day Harper Avenue remains one of the neighborhood's most special and coveted locations. When the current owners purchased 5740, the house needed complete renovation. The planning was undertaken thoughtfully, preserving the character of 19th century details while upgrading the house for modern living. After taking the interior down to the studs, the house now offers all new electrical and plumbing, new windows, zoned air conditioning and forced-air heating, new oak flooring throughout, new bathrooms, large walk-in closets, a chef's kitchen, main level powder room, and fully finished lower level. The front door opens into the foyer where one is immediately impressed with spaciousness; this is a warm and welcoming house with an open floor plan that defies its age. Light fills the living and adjacent dining room, that flow into the large chef's kitchen, enhanced by a family room and breakfast area overlooking the verdant back yard. Moving up the beautifully detailed staircase accented by original stained glass, one enters a spacious hallway with built-in bookshelves that provides a welcoming landing to three bedrooms and two luxurious full baths on this, the second level. The entire third floor has been transformed from an attic/maid's quarters into handsomely finished space, with two bedrooms and a full bath. Heading downstairs, the lower level was recently completed and offers a family room, storage, a laundry room (washer/dryer also on the second level), and a full bath. And the property offers a rarity on the block, a garage. Located a short walk from the University of Chicago, the Laboratory Schools and all Hyde Park has to offer......! And now just a bit of background history. Remarkably, nearly all the Queen Anne and shingle-style homes on Harper are still standing nearly a century and a half after completion. Years before the founding of the University of Chicago, the development was established by Rosalie Buckingham, a wealthy heiress whose name Chicagoans will likely recognize from Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park, named for Rosalie's cousin. In 1883, she acquired two city blocks in rapidly expanding Hyde Park Township, which was then still a separate suburb. Solon S. Beman, who had just designed Chicago's most famous planned community Pullman, was hired to oversee a plan for 42 houses for her. We do not know the architect of 5740 Rosalie Court, but early records list attorney Henry Thurston Chace as the home's fist resident. All of this is to say .... today Harper Avenue remains a very, very special place.