The Best Fireplace in Metro Chicagoon February 8, 2021 at 7:02 pm

If you had visited 311 Sixth Avenue in La Grange in your carriage after it was first constructed in the 20th-century aughts, your horses would have trotted you up to the guest entrance on the north side, which would have led you into a manse accented by rich woods and intricate leaded glass. Architect Joseph C. Llewellyn, who’s known for his school buildings and who lived across the street, designed it for E.K. Boisot, vice president and manager of the First Trust and Savings Bank. More than a century later, the seven-bedroom, 5,188-square-foot home, not including the basement and the space on top of the garage, is listed for $1.55 million with Compass (currently under contract), and it still contains many vintage details.

Arguably the most eye-catching is the living room’s fireplace, with a vine-and-leaf glass mosaic by Giannini & Hilgart, the art glass firm behind the mosaic fireplace at the Richard H. Driehaus Museum. In the office, you’ll find a fold-down desk among the built-in wooden cabinetry; in the dining room, built-in display cases and a buffet blend with the wainscoting. Even the powder room features a tropical scene of flamingos and palm trees etched into glass.

Owner John Hamilton, a retired CEO, most recently of the former Veyance Technologies, is especially fond of the three-sided porch on the southern side of the house. The second-floor deck sits atop an addition that enlarged the kitchen and created a window-filled family room and eating area. Hamilton has the home’s blueprints and says they’ll stay with the house. In fact, the surprising floor plan is what he loves most about the property — that you can never tell what’s around the corner. “You walk through a room and it’s beautiful and spectacular,” he says. “And then you go, ‘Oh, there’s a door here. What’s over there?’ And then you discover another room, equally spectacular.” To be sure, it’s not just the more obvious attributes that catch your eye, Hamilton says. “Even the radiators are works of art.”

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