Aug 6, 2007

Sale of the Week–Motorola Co-Founder's Oak Park Home

List Price: $1,199,000
Sale Price: $1,070,000

The Property: This handsome brick Mediterranean-style house was the home of Joseph Galvin, who with his brother, Paul, founded the radio company that became the technology giant Motorola. The house was built in the late 1920s, according to James Collins, the agent for the house's sellers, Sam and Kathleen Manola. That would date it to approximately the same time-1928-that the Galvin brothers started the Galvin Manufacturing Company, Paul's third attempt in the battery and radio business.

Joseph Galvin bought the house in the 1930s and died there of a heart attack at age 44 in 1944. Three years later, Paul Galvin renamed the company Motorola (after the company's car radios) and went on to build it into a major electronics firm, which was handed down to his son and, later, his grandson. The house has 13 rooms (five of them bedrooms), two fireplaces, and a coat of arms in the leaded glass windows. Collins says there is still a clock on the wall that Galvin wired so that it chimes when the doorbell is pressed, and the speakers from Galvin's own audio system still reside in the basement. The house stands on a large lot among other vintage homes and is half a block from lovely Lindberg Park. (The Manolas could not be reached for comment.)

Price Points: "The house sold itself," Collins says of the inviting and well-maintained property. It is an attractive house in a nice location, and it was priced right, ultimately selling in just 22 days with no price reductions and no buyer's incentives. That proves it can happen these days.

Buyers: Not yet identified in public records

Listing Agent: James Collins, Liz Dudeck & Associates, (312) 909-0711

Posted at 06:09 AM in Sale of the Week | Permalink

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