List price: $1.399 million

The Property: Designed by the great North Shore architect Howard Van Doren Shaw, this home was built in 1913 as one half of a pair of twin gatehouses for a lavish lakefront estate on Sheridan Road. When the present sellers, Tierney Danehy and Tom McNulty, bought the place in 1995, it had been severed from the estate house (which still stands) and was being rented out, with two apartments upstairs and four two-car garage bays on the main floor. “It was great space that we could turn into whatever we wanted,” says Danehy.

Danehy and McNulty put a large living/dining room in two bays and a kitchen/great room in the other two bays, with a staircase between the rooms. (They replaced the garage doors with sliding doors.) Upstairs, they put four bedrooms, two baths, a laundry room, and a den in what had been two servants’ apartments and some additional space above their new two-car garage. The couple also preserved many of Shaw’s touches, such as an elaborate rope molding below the eaves and the two-toned brickwork inside the house. (The two exterior staircases that used to lead to the apartments are still there, although they are only decorative now.) When adding new details, such as exterior door entablature, the couple and their architect, Lesa Rizzolo, did an excellent job of staying in touch with the character of the original structure.

Price Points: With its Sheridan Road address, its views into a wooded estate, and a lot that is more than a third of an acre, this home is a prize. But its floor plan will not appeal to someone who is shopping for an impressive center-entry house; it is a warm and appealing home, but light on grandeur. The price tag is in keeping with Glencoe, where two thirds of the 89 homes that sold there over the past year went for more than a million dollars.

Listing Agent: The homeowner, Tierney Danehy (of Village Green Realty), is handling the sale: 847-501-4300.