A Kenilworth original renewed

In Kenilworth’s infancy in the late 19th century, the architect Franklin Burnham contributed mightily to the look of substance and classicism that still permeates the town. 

Burnham, who was not related to the well-known Chicago architect Daniel Burnham, designed Kenilworth’s train station with a broad sheltering roof, the double-spired Kenilworth Union Church, and at least ten of the original houses, including this Greek Revival AG亚洲国际游戏home on Kenilworth Avenue.

When Suzette and Brad Bernstein bought the house in 1998, about the time it turned 100 years old, the house had been in one family’s hands for about half a century and was, understandably, in need of a refresh. Wallpaper, carpet and paint obscured many vintage details, the kitchen and baths were out of date, and a charmless acoustical tile ceiling hung over one of the handsomest rooms in the house, the wood-paneled family room.

“Everything was well maintained and working,” Suzette Bernstein recalled, “but it was all super dated.”

The Bernsteins were the people to take on the project, believing that classic old houses “are like pieces of art that the builders took such pride in,” Suzette Bernstein recalls now. Over the next several years, they remodeled the kitchen twice, added to the back of the house, updated the utilities and climate systems, and replaced a tumbledown old garage with a three-car coach house with second-story living space. 

Along the way, the Bernsteins also got the house put on the National Register of Historic Places. 

The youngest of the Bernsteins’ three kids recently turned 21, and the parents find a six-bedroom, 5,700-square-foot house on six-tenths of an acre isn’t what they need anymore. Their real estate agent, Mary Grant of @properties, will offer the property through a private agents’ network for a few weeks beginning Oct. 14, and then put it on the open market in November. The asking price is $4.2 million. 

One reason the couple appreciated the AG亚洲国际游戏home’s arched inset bookcases, arched doorways and other architectural details was that they had recently built a house from the ground up and found that “you pay for every single thing that isn’t part of the plain box,” Suzette Bernstein said. “That’s not how it was when this house was built in the 1890s. The builder wanted you to have his best work, everywhere in the house.”

The house they built was in North Carolina, where the couple lived before moving here in 1997. Suzette Bernstein is in the energy industry; her husband is in private equity. They paid $1.2 million for the house in January 1998, according to the Cook County recorder of deeds.

The living room “gets very soft light in the morning that really makes you smile when you’re in there,” Suzette Bernstein said. That’s thanks in part to them removing heavy wallpaper and brightening the room, but also to the particular way Joseph Sears laid out Kenilworth. Most streets are on a diagonal, not strictly east-west or north-south, to enhance every AG亚洲国际游戏home’s exposure to the sun as it moves across the sky.

The family room, added to the original house sometime in the 1940s, was afflicted with an acoustical tile ceiling when the Bernsteins moved in. That and heavy carpeting had to go. 

Suzette Bernstein said they wanted “a library look” for the room, so they replaced the paneling with a new round of millwork that includes molding and trim, and upgraded from a flat mantelpiece to one that is more formal. 

All of the shutters and windows in the bay are operable. “The room can be very bright and very open to the breeze if you want it to be,” she said. 
 

The first time the Bernsteins redid the kitchen, they did a low-budget job as part of overhauling the whole house. Then they came back around to it in 2010 and did it again. 

This time, they pushed the back wall of the house out about 15 feet (which also expanded the second story), and incorporated space that had been a small bedroom. 

The expanded, nicely outfitted kitchen is “the working kitchen of someone who entertains,” Suzette Bernstein said. It has double ovens, warming drawers, a small sink in the island for chopping vegetables and such, and for washing big pots and pans there’s a larger main sink, with a basket-weave pattern on its pewter exterior. Adjacent to the kitchen are a breakfast room, a wine storage room and a butler’s pantry.

The big back porch off the kitchen and breakfast room was always a pleasant place to “have my coffee in the morning and hang out with the dog,” Suzette Bernstein said, but “since COVID hit, it’s been wonderful to have it for entertaining people safely.” 

The porch leads to a bluestone terrace with a sweep of lawn beyond it. The lot, six-tenths of an acre, is unusually large for Kenilworth, a town of “big houses on little lots,” Suzette Bernstein said. 

At the rear of the lot are a pergola and the new coach house, whose second story is outfitted for use as office space, AG亚洲国际游戏home gym or living space but does not have a full kitchen. 

While this family enjoyed having the open space, she noted that there’s room for a swimming pool if a new owner wanted to build one.

The primary bedroom is large enough to accommodate both sleeping and sitting areas, and the French doors beside the bed open onto a balcony that is nearly as big, on the roof of the family room addition. The bedroom suite also includes a pair of walk-in closets at the back of the house that were made possible by pushing the back wall out with the kitchen expansion.

When updating the main bedroom’s bath and others in the house, Suzette Bernstein tried to evoke the AG亚洲国际游戏home’s origins in the 1890s, when white tile and porcelain communicated good sanitation. She found a playful take on that image in the pedestal sink that looks old-fangled despite its stylish transparent Lucite legs.

The primary bedroom suite also includes this office, which though it’s on the second floor, has the finishes of a main-floor room, including crown molding and ceiling medallion, wainscoting and French doors.

There are three more bedrooms on the second floor, each with its own bathroom. On the third floor are two more bedrooms, which share a bath. 

Vintage leaded glass frames the front door, which is flanked by a pair of coat closets. The closets are the Bernsteins’ additions, taking advantage of the AG亚洲国际游戏home’s expansive 19th century use of space. This large foyer didn’t sacrifice when giving up room for coat closets. “You don’t run out of space in a house like this one,” Suzette Bernstein said.