Community Corner

Hemingway's Boyhood Home for Sale

Foundation scraps ownership plans for Oak Park home, where the author spent part of his childhood.

Want to sleep in Ernest Hemingway's boyhood home?

It'll cost a cool half-million.

The famed author's former home at 600 N. Kenilworth Ave. is up for sale, according to The Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park.

Find out what's happening in Oak Park-River Forestwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The foundation bought the home, which has been converted into a three-flat, from a private owner in 2002. According to Forest Leaves, foundation members wanted to restore it for educational events but later determined that wasn't feasible.

For more on the home's previous ownership, see this June 2011 Wednesday Journal story.

Find out what's happening in Oak Park-River Forestwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“The building was built originally as a glorious home for entertaining,” Baird & Warner realtor Steve Scheuring told Forest Leaves. “Ernest’s mother was really the one that took charge in assisting the design of the home. It once had a music room off the north side and she (Grace) held music events in the home while the front two rooms off the entry foyer were his father’s physician offices.”

The asking price for the 4,200 square foot home is $525,000.

"It needs some work," Scheuring said. "There's a reason a 4,200 square-foot property in the middle of Oak Park is selling for five-and-a-quarter."

In addition to fielding several phone calls about the home, Scheuring said he's already shown it several times.

"What an opportunity to return this property to its original glory or keep a fine piece of investment property in quiet North Oak Park," he writes in his listing.

Interested? Contact EHFOP chairman John W. Berry at johnwberry(at)mac.com or Steve Scheuring with Baird & Warner at steve.scheuring(at)bairdwarner.com


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