Donald Wilson Jr., the CEO and founder of the diversified trading firm DRW Holdings, has placed a prominent, five-bedroom, 19th-century mansion and neighborhood landmark in Wicker Park on the market for $6.95 million. The listing comes a little over two years after Wilson bought the home and embarked on a major renovation that included reuniting it with a coach house to the east.
Wilson owns and lives in a 14,298-square-foot mansion in Lincoln Park that he built in the early 2010s. Through DRW’s real estate investment arm, Convexity Properties, Wilson also has overseen the renovations of other vintage properties in the city, including the Three Arts Club on the Gold Coast, the Robey Hotel in Bucktown and the old Noel State Bank building in Bucktown, which now houses a Walgreens pharmacy.
In 2021, Wilson bought the 8,250-square-foot red brick imitation castle-style mansion and its 0.25-acre property in an off-market transaction for $4.8 million. Weeks later, Wilson paid $1.47 million to a separate seller for the adjoining coach house and its 0.09-acre property, immediately to the east. Now, Wilson has reunited the two properties under common ownership.
Built in the 1880s for beer baron John H. Rapp, the Second Empire-style mansion sits on an unusually large lot on North Hoyne Street and boasted a spectacular domed turreted top and a multicolored porch. Prior owners who bought the mansion in 2007 deconverted it from multifamily use to be a single-family home.
Wilson’s 2021 purchase caused a stir in Wicker Park, as it was accompanied by major renovation plans, including linking the mansion to the existing coach house. Wilson himself appeared before the Wicker Park Committee community group in September 2021 to lay out his plans, and his architect also submitted plans to the Commission on Chicago Landmarks.
Now, the expanded and renovated mansion is on the market. It has 5-1/2 bathrooms, four fireplaces, an oval-shaped entry hall, a traditional turret, restored original doors and hardware, a Lutron lighting system and a kitchen with a butler’s pantry, a breakfast dining space with a banquette and a built-in desk.
Other features in the mansion include a curving suspended staircase, custom bunk beds in one of the secondary bedrooms, two laundry rooms, a primary bedroom suite with a custom dressing room, a walk-in closet and a marble-clad en-suite bath with two vanities. The third floor has two designer offices, along with a den with knotty alder wood floors and a gas fireplace.
The mansion’s garden level has a large playroom, a wine room, a kitchenette, a walk-in storage room and a custom mudroom. Outdoor features include a two-car garage, two limestone terraces off the main level — one of which has an outdoor kitchen and a built-in grill — a terrace off the garden level and the standalone coach house.
Listing agent Tim Salm of Jameson Sotheby’s declined to comment on the listing.
The mansion lot had a $42,631 property tax bill in the 2021 tax year, while the coach house lot carried another $17,696 in property taxes in 2021.
Bob Goldsborough is a freelance writer.
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