The Chicago Tribune reports that a 1755 square foot cottage designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in the village of Glencoe, Illinois, about 25 miles north of Chicago, has sold for $555,000, far lower than the $1 million that was initially asked for in October 2017. The three bedroom cottage was built in 1913 for Wright's attorney Sherman Booth. The Booths lived there while a larger house designed by Wright was being built for them.
Public records do not yet identify the buyers. However, the agent who represented the buyers, Honore Frumentino of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices KoenigRubloff, told Elite Street that she could not comment on their identity or plans for the cottage. Asked if the buyers plan to demolish the cottage, Frumentino stated only that “I don’t think they know yet. It’s a challenge because of the way (the cottage is) placed on the property.”
Although the house was declared an honorary landmark by the Village of Glencoe in 1996, nothing legally precludes an owner from demolishing it. Glencoe Village Manager Philip Kiraly recently told the Tribune's Pioneer Press reporter Karen Ann Cullotta that when it comes to the sale of private properties like the Booth cottage, officials’ “hands are tied” if a homeowner plans to tear it down.
Just before the Booth cottage’s sale, Landmarks Illinois, a nonprofit preservation group, identified it as one of two homes in Glencoe at risk of demolition as part of the group’s annual list of endangered historic properties. The other Glencoe site is the Hoover estate at 1801 Green Bay Road, which recently was purchased by a developer who plans to clear the site and construct 29 new homes.
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