SOLD! A Gorgeous, Sprawling 1970 Ranch by George T. Callas in North Barrington
Sometimes I list homes for sale for which there’s no information that I can find with regards to who designed the house. And then there are times when I have the architect’s name, but can’t really find any info on them.
Such is the case with this home in North Barrington. I’d been familiar with the house at 610 Signal Hill Road in North Barrington before I met with the owners, Ed & Lianne, because I spend a lot of time in North Barrington and because I’d noticed that, from an aerial view, the house & pool look vaguely like a Klingon Bird of Prey (if you know, you know).
This is because the house is truly a sprawling ranch. I wouldn’t even want to guess the distance from one end of the house to the other, but it’s long.
The plan is comprised of a series of overlapping, elongated hexagons. That, combined with a pair of garages that are connected to the home via a long, enclosed breezeway, is what gives the home its characteristic shape.
But let me back up for a moment. The property is located a minute or so west of the Biltmore subdivision in North Barrington, about 10 minutes from both downtown Barrington and downtown Lake Zurich. This part of Signal Hill is high up on an actual hill, and the 5-acre property at 610 Signal Hill Road is lush with mature trees around the perimeter, as well as sprinkled throughout, with a snaking, double-circle driveway that winds around more clusters of trees and plants, giving the house a tremendous amount of privacy.
That privacy is one of the things that attracted Ed & Lianne to the house.
“There were a number of things that we weren’t ready to compromise on in our home search before we bought this house,” says Lianne, a retired nurse. “We wanted at least a couple of acres, so that we had space between us and our neighbors. We wanted a quiet area. We wanted a single-story house. And we wanted a lot of trees. This house ticked all of those boxes.”
In fact, the house sits so far back from the street, and is so large, that you’d be forgiven for thinking that there isn’t much land behind it, yet there’s quite a bit. The property features not only an enormous front yard, but a sizeable back yard as well, with an area that Ed & Lianne have fenced off for their dogs. And then there’s the pool…more about that later.
The home itself was designed by George T. Callas of the firm Meland, Callas & Associates, Inc. And while the assessor’s office has 1970 as the year the house was built, that appears to be when it was finished. But the building permit for the house was issued on September 16th, 1968.
I haven’t been able to find out much about Callas. His obituary (he passed away last year) mentions that he was an architect for 52 years, he designed & built both homes and schools, and that he studied under Mies van der Rohe. I wasn’t able to find any information about him in the AIA historical archives, so I’m assuming he was never a member.
Regardless, he designed one heck of a house for whoever his clients were in North Barrington. The overlapping hexagon layout not only means that the house looks extremely interesting from above, but also that there are virtually no right angles anywhere in the house.
Approach the home from the driveway and you’ll notice that you drive over a small ravine, beautifully landscaped with plants and stones. From the front walk you’ll see a few elements that are repeated throughout the house: Large windows, exposed beams, and massive stone walls.
Step inside and it only gets better. The exposed beams are accompanied by exposed plank ceilings in the main part of the house, with clerestory windows facing west off of the entryway, and a ceiling that soars above one of several walls built of beautiful California drift stone.
Take a couple steps down into the sunken living room and you’ll appreciate all the natural light coming in through the banks of windows on the opposite side of the room. Here, the stone wall reveals itself as encompassing one of four fireplaces in the home, as well as a firebox.
“The living room is one of my favorite spaces in the house,” says Ed, a retired IT professional. “The amount of light in the room, as well as the high ceilings and all of the natural materials, like the wood beams, the wood on the ceilings, and the stone that the chimney is made of, make for a really fantastic space with so much texture. When we first bought the house, the living room was carpeted. I looked under the carpet and found that there was hardwood there, so we removed the carpet and had the hardwood refinished.”
At the far side of the room, go back up a couple of steps and you’ll be in the kitchen, with an eat-in area off to one side and a spacious island capped with leathered granite in the center. Doors here lead to an elevated deck where you can enjoy an al fresco meal in nice weather, overlooking the pool and all the beautiful trees beyond.
At the back of the kitchen is a terrific butler’s pantry with tons of storage and a 2nd oven. Appliances are high end and either stainless or paneled, for a truly luxurious cook’s kitchen, complete with warming drawer. Around the corner is a large dry bar and hutch that includes 2 refrigerator drawers. The dry bar sits between the kitchen and the dining area, which features another one of the home’s stone fireplaces for cozy, fireside dining.
Head across the entry foyer and you’ll be in the bedroom area, where four bedrooms are arranged around a small outdoor atrium (eagle-eyed readers will have spotted a cutout in the roof over this section of the house).
Directly across from the atrium, carved, wood double doors lead you into the spacious Primary suite. Three of the four bedrooms each have two closets, including the Primary Suite. In this room, Lianne & Ed turned the secondary closet into shoe storage. The main closet is a large, walk-in space that’s been outfitted with built-in shelves & cabinets so that there’s plenty of organized storage here.
The en-suite bathroom features separate vanities for each of the owners, as well as a separate tub and walk-in shower. Large windows here offer so much natural light during the day, looking out over the yard into the many mature trees surrounding the property.
On top of all this, the Primary Suite features one of Lianne’s favorite spaces: A sunken sitting area.
“I just love this space,” says Lianne. “It’s my favorite room in the house. The step-down entry, rich wood flooring, the 18-foot ceiling, the floor to ceiling windows and the stone fireplace with the large hearth. This is really my inner sanctum, so-to-speak. I love how calming it is, regardless of where in the room I’m sitting or which windows I’m looking out. I love reading by the windows during a rain or snow storm.”
The second bedroom also has an en-suite bathroom, and bedrooms 3 (currently being used as an office) and 4 share a bathroom in the hall off the bedroom wing, which is next to the laundry room: Another well-designed space with generous storage and excellent functionality.
Back across the house, go past the powder room off of the dining room, and through a door there, and you’ll find yourself in the breezeway sunroom. It’s a few steps down from the rest of the house and features glass on two sides, plus what appears to once have been an outdoor grill in another stone wall. In fact, the breezeway appears – at least to me – to once have been an outdoor space that was later enclosed, and even features walkways outside, on both sides of the glass. Follow it to the other end, and on the left you’ll find another of the home’s most unique features.
Up one step and through a door on the left you’ll find a 2-story wine storage room, complete with its own climate control system, with capacity for thousands of bottles of wine between the 2 levels.
Take a left out of the wine cellar and you’ll go through a door into the garage. Technically it’s a 2-car garage, but the hexagonal shape means there’s a lot of extra benefit in this garage: First, you could angle cars in so that both could open their doors fully without hitting each other or the sides of the garage. And there’s so much extra space in the garage because of the shape that you could easily store a motorcycle or other power toys in there along with two cars.
Go through the door on the left side of the garage and you’ll be in the Studio, which also has a garage door in it.
“One of the previous owners used this as a studio space,” says Ed. “That was another thing that was important to us in our home search before we found this house. I’m a musician and Lianne is a sculptor, so we wanted a house with studio space and for storage for some of my equipment. This space was beyond what we thought we’d ever find in a house with all the other things we were looking for. Somebody who lived here before us put in a raised platform across a good portion of the studio, to hide cables and that sort of thing. But you could probably fit another 3 or 4 cars in here if you took out the platform or put a little ramp at the edge to drive up.”
Back inside the main house, at the back of the home between the living room and the bedroom wing is the stairway to get to the walkout lower level. The U-shaped stairway is partially comprised of angled, open-riser stairs. At the bottom you’ll find yourself in the bar area.
Beyond this is a huge walk-in shower designed, no doubt, to be used by people using the pool, which is just up a short set of steps once you walk out the sliders at the back of the family room on this level.
The family room is quite spacious, and includes the home’s 4th and final fireplace, with a generous hearth that runs the length of the fireplace wall. The outside wall, where the sliders are leading to the back yard and pool area, features the same cedar siding that’s found on much of the outside of the home.
Around the corner from the family room is a large exercise area, and opposite that are a bonus space that could be used as a dedicated office or any number of other uses, and a powder room, before getting to the mechanicals room.
Head out the sliders and up a few steps and you’re at the entrance to the pool area. Built prior to Ed & Lianne’s ownership, the in-ground, heated pool is surrounded by a very generously-sized brick paver patio, with plenty of room for lounge chairs and an outdoor dining set. From here, the home’s angular, modernist architecture is in full view, and looking amazing both during the day and as the sun is setting.
The pool itself was wonderfully designed to echo the geometric visual interest provided by the home’s architecture, with an angular bend in the pool that helps make this outdoor space feel cohesive with the house.
“Everything about the outdoor spaces surrounding the house is so lovely,” says Lianne. “The first time we visited the house, when it was for sale, we were amazed by how pretty the winding driveway was…and the gorgeous landscaping. First the driveway, curving this way and that, the two circles – one by the garages and one by the house – and then the architecture of the home itself. We truly felt like we had entered a resort.”
“We’ve made so many great memories here,” adds Ed. “Whether it’s fun pool parties, large holiday get-togethers with the family, or just enjoying the peace and quiet of living in this home and on this property. It’s a very special location and home. The idea of leaving this house is sad for both of us, but we’re expecting our first grandchild soon and the joy of that occasion has us moving out of state.”
This home sold on October 6th, 2025.
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