North Shore Views

Charming Kenilworth Gardens Home

My best buy for this week is 2118 Elmwood Avenue in Wilmette. It’s a classic brick home in the family-friendly Kenilworth Gardens neighborhood with three bedrooms, one and a half baths.

It’s priced at $599,000 and here’s why it’s such a great value:

• It’s light and bright and has charming vintage details including a fireplace, hardwood floors throughout, formal dining room and a kitchen with good storage space, as well as a family room off the kitchen. The basement is finished with a play room and office area. A walk-up attic offers plenty of additional storage. The two-car garage is an unusual bonus for homes of this vintage.

• The location in Kenilworth Gardens can’t be beat. It’s on a quiet street with an easy walk to Harper School and Highcrest Middle School, Thornwood Park and the Kenilworth Metra station.

• It’s priced lower than comparable homes in Kenilworth Gardens, which go for between $635,000 and $699,000.  The seller is also offering a home warranty plan for the buyer. There’s room to add on for a larger master bedroom plus bath, and would be easy to accomplish given the home’s layout.

The downside? There’s no AC, but a space pack can be added for less than $10,000. And it could use some cosmetic updating here and there.

The listing agent is Maureen Spriggs with Coldwell Banker. You can see a virtual tour of the house here. If you’d like to see this home in person, please give me a call at 847-687-5957. I’d love to show it to you.

Tags: Kenilworth Gardens, Real estate, Wilmette homes for sale

Wilmette's Neighborhoods: Kenilworth Gardens

This is the first in a series of posts about the individual neighborhoods on the North Shore. As they say, real estate is local, and each neighborhood has its own characteristics and quirks. So, when we look for the ideal place to live, we need to drill down beyond ” the North Shore”  or even the particular town. As your search gets more serious, you have to go to the neighborhood level.  Since I live in Kenilworth Gardens, it seemed like the obvious place to start my neighborhood series.

If you’re not from around here, the first thing you need to know is that Kenilworth Gardens is NOT in Kenilworth. It is in Wilmette, but it is right across Ridge Rd. from Kenilworth. No doubt the developers of this neighborhood of starter homes sought to give it some cache by naming it after its grander neighbor to the east.

Kenilworth Gardens was developed during the 50’s and 60’s from land that once was part of Gross Point Village.  The neighborhood is bounded by Ridge Rd. on the east, Iroquios Rd. to the south, and Indian Hill (Winnetka) to the north. The western edge is harder to pinpoint. Some say it is Hunter Rd., but most of the residents would say it stretches a little further west, as far as Harper School.

The lot size in this area is typically 50′ by 122-132′ (the lots on Chestnut Ave. are deeper than those on other streets). Most of the houses were originally built with 3 bedrooms, one and a half baths, and a one car garage, but many have been added onto over the years and now have 4 bedrooms and two and a half baths plus a family room. There are various styles but most of the homes are either colonials or Tudors. Currently, prices range from $650,000 to $1,400,000. It’s a popular neighborhood for young families moving up from the city or relocating from out of town. It has a friendly vibe and block parties are frequent during the summer. It’s the go-to neighborhood for Halloween trick or treating.

The neighborhood is served by Harper Elementary School (K-4), which is walkable from anywhere in the

Brownies Hold a Bake Sale in front of Harper Elementary

neighborhood. Thornwood Park, which is catty-corner to the school, has tennis courts, a play lot and a ball field, where the Wilmette baseball teams play all spring and summer. In the summer there is an annual Thornwood Park concert, where 3-4 bands comprised of local dads play to an enthusiastic crowd of neighbors and friends.

During better markets, the houses in Kenilworth Gardens sell very quickly, but at this writing there are a 12 to choose from. Here’s a sampling:

2115 Chestnut - $825,000

2133 Beechwood - $895,000

2105 Greenwood - $679,000

If you’d like to know more about this neighborhood or any of the homes for sale, just leave me a comment or send me an email to anne@northshoreviews.com. I’d be happy to help you.

Tags: Chicago North Shore, Kenilworth Gardens, Wilmette, Wilmette neighborhoods