A St. Charles house designed to mimic the look of the two-century-old governor’s mansion in Virginia sold after a dozen years on the market.
Built in 1995 on Lakeview Circle in the Hawk Country Club, the five-bedroom house sold August 16 for $915,000. That’s about 51 percent of the $1.775 million Ellen and Ted Roberts were asking for the house when they first listed it in September 2009.
“I think the millennial buyers today want more of an open concept,” Ellen Roberts told Crain’s. The house has an interior layout that for the most part duplicates the floor plan of the governor’s mansion built in Richmond, Virginia, in 1813, and it may have “overwhelmed (prospective buyers) with its formality,” she said.
In the early 1990s, the couple planned to build a Tudor-style home on the 1.25-acre lot they bought in the country club now known as The Hawk—formerly the Royal Hawk. On a visit to Virginia, a tour of the federal-style governor’s mansion changed their minds, they told Chicago Magazine in 2009. The couple tapped architect Michael Dixon to create a replica of the building, which is the nation’s oldest state executive mansion still used for its original purpose.
The St. Charles house completed in 1995 included some differences from the original, including a two-story central hall capped by a stained-glass skylight. In the Richmond mansion, designed by Alexander Perris, the central hall is a single story high. After their four kids were grown, the Robertses put the house on the market in 2009. They reduced the price and changed listing agents several times over the ensuing years. They also updated the kitchen and baths and replaced some carpeting with wood flooring, according to Ellen Roberts.
In April, the home went back on the market priced at $950,000 and was newly represented by Marion Wulff of Re/Max of Barrington. Wullf told Crain’s the obstacle to getting the house sold had long been the price.
Karla Garcia, the Century 21 Affiliated agent who represented the buyers, said “they immediately fell in love with it when they walked in. It’s so spacious.” She declined to identify the buyers, and their names do not yet appear in public records.
Homes in St. Charles sold in an average of 43 days on the market in the first half of 2021, according to a report from Midwest Real Estate Data and the Chicago Association of Realtors. St. Charles is 42 miles west of downtown Chicago.
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