The house and its attached coach house contain a total of six apartments, with 12 bedrooms. One is a two-bedroom owners unit that includes the mansion’s original living room and opens onto a four-level deck.
Shelton, who bought the already-divided property in the late 1970s with her now-deceased husband, John, could not be reached.
The property was under contract in July, but that deal did not go through, resulting in the new listing this week. It’s been under contract a few times over the years without ever closing.
“It’s 10,000 square feet and it all needs to be gut-rehabbed,” said D. Waveland Kendt, the @properties agent now representing the property. “The last time it was touched was 30 or 40 years ago.”
There is little left of the original finishes other than tile fireplace mantels and leaded glass windows, so redoing the interior would be “a complete job for a designer, which can take years with design and permits,” Kendt said.
The Winston mansion is far from alone in its predicament. Once prized, high-end Gold Coast mansions have proven difficult to sell in recent years as wealthy buyers have turned their attention to new penthouses in the city or the suburbs.
At the present price, the mansion might appeal to a redeveloper who would either turn it back into a single residence or revamp all the units and put the rehabbed property on the market.
The property is rated orange, the second-highest rating in the city’s index of historical buildings. Such buildings can be demolished but can be subject to a 90-day delay. The site is a double lot, 50 by 132 feet, according to the listing.
The original owner, Frederick S. Winston, was an attorney who joined his father, Frederick H. Winston, in the Chicago law firm that the latter founded in 1853.
F. S. Winston was named Chicago’s corporation counsel in 1881, and the next year he was the firm’s first attorney to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court. He headed the law firm, then called Winston, Strawn & Shaw, at the time of his death in 1909.
With 893 attorneys, Winston & Strawn ranked as the nation’s 43rd-largest law firm in 2019. It’s Chicago’s fourth-largest firm, based on the number of local lawyers, according to Crain’s 2020 rankings.
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