WINNETKA
LIST $2.5 MILLION SALE $2 MILLION

In November 2009, two years after the death of the pharmaceutical executive Daniel C. Searle, his family put his Winnetka home on the market at $3.35 million. After a markdown, the house sold in March for $2 million—60 percent of the original asking price.

Built in 1937 for John G. and Frances Searle (Daniel’s parents), the house may be the work of Edwin Clark, who designed many grand North Shore residences, as well as Wilmette’s Plaza del Lago, Winnetka’s Village Hall, and buildings at Brookfield and Lincoln Park Zoos. At the time of the sale, the house, on two secluded acres outside Winnetka, still had its original kitchen—complete with icebox. But the home had Dan Searle’s 1990s additions, too: an art gallery and a lap pool.

According to Midge Powell, the Jean Wright Real Estate agent who sold the property, it also has “a wonderful foyer or reception room, a very large living room with pretty moldings and a fireplace, and two more fireplaces, in the dining room and the library.” Neither the Searle family nor the buyer, the insurance consultant David Greenspahn, responded to requests for comment.

Daniel Searle was the fourth and last generation of his family to head the Skokie-based company G. D. Searle, which made Metamucil, Dramamine, NutraSweet, and other products. In 1985, Monsanto paid $2.7 billion for the company, then run by Searle’s friend Donald Rumsfeld.

Send tips about home sales to dennis@rodkin.com.

Photograph: Dennis Rodkin