Latest news with #GothicRevival-style
Chicago Tribune
6 days ago
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago sells Kenwood mansion to University of Chicago surgeon for $1.1M
A nine-bedroom vintage Renaissance Revival-style mansion in the South Side Kenwood neighborhood was sold in late March for $1.15 million by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago to a University of Chicago surgeon. Built in 1905 and designed by noted Chicago architect Jarvis Hunt, the mansion was built for Homer A. Stillwell, the general manager of the Butler Bros. catalog firm, at a cost of $35,000, according to a Tribune article from Feb. 26, 1905. The house broadly would be characterized as Renaissance Revival-style, but it employs a variety of other architectural styles, including a Colonial Revival-style front door, Italianate-style quoins, and even a Gothic Revival-style oriel window. Stillwell sold the mansion in 1914, and for close to 60 years, from 1966 until 2025, the home was owned by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, which used it as a residence for members of its Focolare movement. It's located across the street from former President Barack Obama's longtime home. The 12-room mansion largely has its original layout, along with 3-1/2 bathrooms, a primary bedroom suite with a library, original plaster, original millwork, original doors and a porte-cochere. The home sits on a 0.73-acre lot. The archdiocese first listed the mansion in October for $1.4 million and never budged on its asking price. It struck a deal with the buyer in February. Catherine Rosenberg of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices represented the buyer. She declined to comment on the transaction. Listing agent Pasquale Recchia also declined to comment, referring queries to the archdiocese.
Yahoo
01-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
HGTV show 'Rehab Addict' to feature restoration of 1928 Detroit home
Home renovator Nicole Curtis is returning home to Michigan in her latest season of the HGTV series "Rehab Addict" to renovate a 1928 Detroit property. The property is "one of the dirtiest abandoned homes she's ever seen," according to a Warner Bros. news release. "She'll scope out the many original details, including subway bathroom tile, a built-in telephone stand and a laundry chute to the basement, before she and her team replace the dilapidated roof — the first step in restoring the home to its original glory," according to a Warner Bros. news release. During this season, Curtis, a Lake Orion native, will also work on a 1980s house 1,500 miles away in Wyoming. "Ripping out the features from a cheap flip, she will start to uncover all her beloved old house details, including original floors and plaster walls, and will put a breathtaking twist on the hideous exterior with custom narrow Victoria-era windows," according to the news release. More: 'Bargain Block' returns for season 4 in Detroit, tackles 'fairy-tale cottages' theme Curtis has rehabbed a number of old houses in Detroit, including the historic Ransom Gillis House, a landmark property in Brush Park whose 2015 restoration was documented by 'Rehab Addict.' The Gothic Revival-style house, located at 205 Alfred St., was originally built in 1876 and had been vacant since the late 1960s before its transformation 10 years ago. One of the condos in the home was listed for $2.5 million in the summer of 2024. More: This family won $100K home makeover. Here's what they will do, with HGTV help "Rehab Addict" began in 2010. The first episode of its ninth season will premier Tuesday, June 24, at 9 p.m. on HGTV. Each new episode will be available to stream the next day on HBO Max and Discovery+, where fans can stream previous seasons. For updates on new episodes, fans can go to or follow @HGTV and Curtis' account @detroitdesign on social media. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: HGTV's Nicole Curtis will restore nearly century-old Detroit home
Scotsman
01-05-2025
- General
- Scotsman
How a Highland castle turned private members' club for super rich is bringing back heritage produce
Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Taymouth Castle on the outskirts of Aberfeldy could have easily gone the way of so many other stately piles across the country. In a state of disrepair, with many leaks, it could have taken 'another couple of winters' for a complete collapse of one of the hand painted ceilings in the drawing room meaning they'd have been lost forever. Taymouth Castle sits at the head of Loch Tay in Perthshire. More than £100m has been spent on returning the pile to its past Victorian splendour. | Represent Now the green/grey stone building, that you can glimpse from the road, has been restored to its former glory, and has been turned into a private members club by Discovery Land Company (DLC). DLC is responsible for the renovation and operations of Taymouth Castle, which was purchased by a US-based investment group including John Paul DeJoria, entrepreneur, and philanthropist in 2018. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Millions have been spent on its painstaking restoration, taking it back to the former owner's heyday - the Campbells of Breadalbane - who famously opened the doors of the castle to welcome Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. The castle is the finest example of a Gothic Revival-style country house in the UK and, having had several owners before now, was set to be lost for good until the restoration. Local and Scottish crafts and tradespeople were used in the huge renovation project, including Prestwick-based Rainbow Glass Studios and MacKay Decorators in Perth. Holiday homes are planned for land surrounding the castle - and there's an upgraded James Braid-designed golf course within the grounds. Both the homes and golf course will be accessible only to 'ultra-rich' DLC members, who will use the castle as the club house where a bar, kids room with old school arcade games and sweet-stocked kitchen, tavern, library, and whisky library can be found. DLC have also bought Glen Lyon estate and are undertaking an ambitious culinary project to bring back heritage produce such as apples and beef to the land. The Chinese Room at Taymouth Castle. | Represent Anyone who passes the imposing but beautiful castle and thinks this is another classic National Trust property that you can visit for a wander in the garden or tour is sadly much mistaken. 'This was always a private house,' said culinary director Gary Robinson who is overseeing the kitchens in the castle and culinary programme at the Glen Lyon estate. 'We're going back in time here a little bit, but when it was here, you couldn't just rock up and say 'any chance of a coffee''. While locals and visitors can't pop in for tea and a scone , the local community has been made part of the renovation and future of the estate. Children from the local school have taken part in the apple tree planting, with each getting a tag with their name for their tree so they can grow up with it. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Mr Robinson, who has worked in some of Scotland's best kitchens including in the Balmoral Hotel and for the Royal family, likened this job to working for the Royals, saying this role, which was a homecoming for him, is refreshing as it's 'not in the competition space'. He said: 'It kind of takes a lot of the pressure off your thinking, as this is all I have to do here. It does take me slightly back to my days with the Royal family, because all I had to do on any given day was look after my boss and his guests.' culinary director Gary Robinson | contributed Mr Robinson knows only too well that some of the best produce whether that's mushrooms or seafood is Scottish but that most of it ends up down south in London or in Europe. We don't get first refusal on our own produce, which is something he's changing within this ecosystem that has been created at Taymouth Castle. By using his contacts from years of working in high end kitchens and for literal Royalty, Mr Robinson has access to the best Scottish produce, which he said: 'The produce we're producing up here, we're getting first dibs on. Our supply chain programme is the coolest thing. I'm getting access to the best of the best, such as girolles, before the Michelin Star restaurants.' While there's access to the best in the country, Mr Robinson is heading up the culinary programme and is taking steps to bring back traditional produce on the estate's farm. Mr Robinson said: 'We're not just cooking to feed people; we're thinking carefully about how that plays into the impact on the land, the environment, and the learning culture we bring to our guests. We are passionate about producing food with honesty and integrity.' Traditional or lost produce such as Ashmean's Kernel, Beauty of Moray, Cambusnethan Pippin; White Joaneting and Golden Monday apples and Chalk Crawford, Lindores, Flower of Monorgan and Jargonelle pears, as well as livestock such as Scottish cattle, are being introduced back to the farm.
CBC
16-04-2025
- Business
- CBC
Westboro residents fear for crumbling monastery saddled with back taxes
A historic nunnery is up for sale after a creditor pushed an Ashcroft Homes subsidiary into receivership, raising worries and hopes about the fate of a heritage property the city says is already unsafe. The Sisters of the Visitation convent near the southwest corner of Richmond Road and Island Park Drive dates back to the 1910s, though parts of it were constructed before Confederation. It housed an order of cloistered nuns for a century, until the property was sold to Ashcroft Homes in 2009 for $12.7 million. Ashcroft built a condo development to the north of the convent. In 2018, city council approved plans to build another nine-storey apartment building linked to the historic convent, which would be retained and preserved. But that never happened, and the convent has been sitting boarded up and vacant for years. In the meantime, $723,567 of tax arrears have built up on the property, which also has about $140,000 worth of liens for money owed to a contractor. According to Stuart Huxley, the interim city solicitor, the city has deemed the building unsafe and issued an order requiring the owner to retain a certified engineer to assess it and provide recommendations for repairs. Huxley said the building is suffering from "significant structural cracks" to its foundation. The building owner has appealed the city's order, Huxley said. "The building is a treasure in our community," said Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Leiper. "It is absolutely irresponsible that the building has been allowed to degrade to this point where there are fundamental questions around its structural integrity." Lorne Cutler, president of the Hampton Iona Community Group, called the convent "a unique, peaceful oasis in the middle of Westboro." Heather Mitchell, chair of the Westboro Community Association's heritage committee, called the situation "appalling." "This is a very important piece of heritage and I think lots of people care about it, but nobody seems to be able to do anything to protect it and advance it. I find that really problematic," she said. "I'm very worried that it's going to deteriorate and I think there's a lot of people that feel the same way. It's a big, beautiful building. It needs a lot of care." A cloistered order The oldest part of the convent was originally built as a Gothic Revival-style mansion around 1865, and known as the Elms. At that time, Richmond Road was lined with the estates of country gentlemen, and the Elms housed a series of prominent Ottawa businessmen and politicians. The third was Senator James Skead and the fourth was George Holland, who briefly co-owned the Ottawa Citizen with his brother. The Holland brothers later became the publishers of the Senate Hansard, a record of Parliamentary debates, and screened the first motion pictures in Ottawa using the Edison's Kinetoscope. The Sisters of the Visitation, a cloistered order founded in 1610, bought the property in 1910. It was to be their last new monastery in North America. They preserved the Elms but added an extensive addition for their cloistered order. It was built around a central courtyard and included a chapel. David Jeanes, a former president of Heritage Ottawa, once gave tours of the convent. He explained just how seriously the nuns took their monastic existence. "The nuns never had any direct face-to-face contact with the outside world," he said. "They stayed inside behind a high wall." Though the chapel opened to the public for church services, the nuns themselves remained hidden behind a screen. They even screened themselves from visiting family, he said, and took deliveries using a revolving cabinet that Jeanes compared to a Lazy Susan. But the number of nuns declined from a few dozen to about eight. After the property sold in 2009, the remaining nuns joined another order in Pembroke, Ont. City council granted the convent heritage designation in 2010, around the time Ashcroft unveiled a three-phase plan to redevelop the site. The first phase, a line of three nine-storey condo buildings along Richmond Road, was completed about 10 years ago. The second phase aimed to transform the convent into a mixed-use building with 161 housing units and restaurant space, though its southwest wing would be demolished to make way for a new nine-storey residential tower. The third phase foresaw a seniors residence and a low-rise residential building at the extreme south of the property. It appears that Ashcroft later flipped the order of the phases, as its website now refers to that part of the plan as phase 2. Jeanes was optimistic that the designation and redevelopment would preserve the convent. No longer. "At the moment, yes, I would say I'm pessimistic," he said. Councillor fears collapse Ashcroft Homes did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The receiver, MNP, said it was unable to comment beyond the documents it has filed with the court. Those documents reveal that the Ashcroft subsidiary known as Ashcroft Homes – 108 Richmond Road did not keep up with interest on a $7 million loan from Royal Bank of Canada. As a result, RBC applied last year to push it into receivership. Ashcroft subsidiaries all over the city are in receivership due to outstanding debt. RBC is also looking to collect on an $80 million loan relating to the expansive Eastboro development in the east end. Several other subsidiaries, including the owners of multiple Ashcroft seniors residences, are also under receivership for millions in outstanding loans to a different group of lenders. The convent sits on a 4.23 acre site. The receiver put it all up for sale. The listing has no set price and bids are due by May 28. Leiper hopes that whoever buys the property will follow through on the council-approved plans to develop and preserve the building. "Until the site is properly developed, there is a real risk that the the convent building may ultimately collapse to some degree or another," he said. But he acknowledged that the tax arrears will be a challenge for any buyer. Mitchell is frightened that the property might just sit on the market. Even if it sells, there's no guarantee that development will happen quickly.
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Yahoo
Three Tennessee colleges make 'most beautiful' campuses in U.S. list. See which ones
Three Tennessee schools made Condé Nast Traveler magazine's list of the most beautiful college campuses in the United States. The list, which includes 54 schools, was published last week and includes everything from the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs to East Coast Ivy League schools, along with a strong representation of schools with historic, Southern charm. Here's a look at the three in Tennessee that made the list. Rhodes College is a private, liberal arts school with 123 acres of sprawling, wooded views in midtown Memphis. While the college was founded in 1848 and originally located in Clarksville, its campus moved to Memphis in 1925, according to the school's website. The original Clarksville campus later became Austin Peay State University. Condé Nast Traveler highlighted the stone buildings that spread out across campus, and in particular the buildings that surround its central quad. Learn more about the college at A private, Episcopalian liberal arts college, The University of the South is more commonly known as Sewanee, which is the small Tennessee town where it is located. The university owns 13,000 acres that include its campus, lakes, forests and bluffs along the western face of the Cumberland Plateau, according to the school's website. Condé Nast Traveler praised the campus for its Collegiate Gothic style buildings and the rose window within its All Saints' Chapel. Learn more about the university at A private university in the West End neighborhood of Nashville, Vanderbilt University is known for its medical school and prestige — but also for its trees. Home to more than 6,000 trees and shrubs that represent more than 190 species, the campus is officially designated as an arboretum, according to its website. Founded in 1873, the university encompasses more than 300 acres in the heart of Nashville. Condé Nast Traveler noted the canopy of trees, along with the university's Gothic Revival-style buildings. Curious about the other schools that made the cut for Condé Nast Traveler? See the full list here. This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Three Tennessee colleges make 'most beautiful' campuses in U.S. list
