SOLD! A Sophisticated & Elegant Modern Ranch in Elgin by John Schmidtke
At the beginning of 2022, during the height of the pandemic real estate boom, local, national and architectural media was abuzz with the story of a modern house that was free for the taking, so long as the person taking it could physically take it somewhere else.
The house was the former personal residence of architect John Schmidtke, known in the area for having designed quite a few municipal and educational buildings, as well as at least three notable modernist single family homes, including his own.
Schmidtke’s home had been in his family from the time it was built in 1967 until it was purchased by a couple in 2018. Just four years later, the property was purchased by a company called High Street Logistics, who were planning to develop that land and some more adjacent land that they also owned.
While I haven’t researched fully to see if the house was ever moved, I didn’t see any indication of it, doing a few quick searches online, so it would seem that the Schmidtke house likely – and sadly – met its demise a couple years ago.
However, one of the other two modernist homes he built in Elgin is not only still very much standing, but is a remarkably adept example of International style modernism.
Built two years before Schmidtke’s own house, the house at 1206 Nottingham Lane, designed for Dr. Marvin Dickey, is slightly smaller than the architect’s own home, at 2,110 square feet, but exhibits many of the same characteristics.
Built of Chicago common brick, cedar and glass, the Nottingham Lane home is sited on a gentle hill in a neighborhood of winding streets, relatively large lots, and hundreds of mature trees.
The post and beam construction house has a wonderful, bright, open plan with spaces that flow together effortlessly, and work in harmony to create a beautiful place in which to live.
Along the front, a series of five square, 100″ x 100″ windows dominate the facade, set back under a generous overhang supported by narrow posts that support the ends of the beams that traverse through the home to the back side.
It’s this array of large, square windows on the front of the house that immediately catches your eye as you drive along the curving Nottingham Lane past the house. And perhaps it’s this elevation that first caught the eye of Pat Nesler many years ago.
“My Mom has always been a modern art and architecture fan,” says Clay Nesler, owner Pat Nesler’s son. “She received a Bachelor’s degree in art history from Northwestern University after retiring as an accountant. She was also a volunteer at the Frank Lloyd Wright home and studio in Oak Park. We grew up about a mile away from 1206 Nottingham, and attended the same schools as the Sherwood Oaks community. My Mom had always admired the house, and jumped at the opportunity to buy it when it became available in 1998. At the time, it was still owned by the original family.”
This visually stunning part of the home incorporates all of the common living spaces: A wide foyer, den with built-in bookshelf / room divider, a spacious living room with a brick fireplace that itself works as a room divider to separate the dining room on the other side, the generously-sized (especially for 1965) kitchen with dinette area, and the covered, screened three-season porch.
“My Mom has always loved the open, modern concept of this house,” says Clay, “and the south facing facade of floor-to-ceiling windows. It’s a perfect vantage point for the changing seasons.”
The second, smaller part of the home features the two bedrooms, both of which have large double windows also facing out the front to the southwest, as well as two bathrooms (including an en-suite for the Primary bedroom), a main level laundry room, three walk-in storage closets and the garage.
Technically speaking, the huge wall of windows that spans the den, living room and dining room, facing out towards Nottingham lane across the lawn, is at the back of the house, since the front door is protected in a portico around the corner from the garage on the other side of the house.
As you traverse up a couple of low-rise steps, you’re greeted by a large globe pendant over the front door, as it sits flanked by beautifully-proportioned side windows and a transom above.
Step inside, and you can immediately feel the luxurious dimensions of the front entryway, as you look through the house to see out those windows opposite the front door.
Beautiful details start to make themselves evident immediately: The careful, deliberate manner in which Schmidtke framed out the doors in the home, all done in the same wood species as the doors themselves (an unusual and beautiful cut of birch); The fact that Schmidtke left space between the kitchen walls and the beams above to separate the spaces without closing them off; and the way in which he uses not only direct light, but borrowed light throughout these common spaces to create a fantastic sense of space, flow and continuity.
The living room, den and dining room are one, and yet they are each clearly defined. On the one side, a bookshelf wall, wrapped in cedar, is open to the den and, like the walls delineating the kitchen, stops short of the ceiling. The chimney stack serves, likewise, not only to hold the fireplace, but to separate the dining room and living room without closing them off from each other.
The dining room, kitchen and covered porch are arranged in an L shape, with the porch in the corner, visually connecting the three spaces through the use of floor-to-ceiling sliding doors that separate the porch from the other two spaces, with no solid walls dividing them from each other or blocking light.
“The screened in porch looks over Mom’s beautiful yard and garden,” says Clay, “where she can watch the nightly procession of animals from deer to coyotes and all manner of smaller animals.”
The kitchen itself features a core work area with a peninsula, along with an extended wall of cabinets that also houses the ovens. The Copse Nappanee cabinetry and hardware are original to the house and were finished to match the millwork and doors throughout the home. Overhead, two large, round light fixtures mimic skylights and offer a rare glimpse of curves in a house designed with straight lines and 90-degree angles.
Out of the kitchen and past the den, the home transitions to the private areas. An abundance of storage is available here, with three walk-in closets offering plenty of storage on the main level.
The 2nd bedroom and 2nd bathroom are generally across the hall from each other, but the doors are staggered a bit for privacy. The bedroom’s nearly-square layout offers ample space for a bed and some other furniture, and the closet feels deeper than normal.
In the bathroom across the hall, you’ll find much in the way of original cabinetry, hardware, tile and fixtures, just like in the kitchen.
Down past the laundry room, the Primary bedroom is rectangular, and features a spacious walk-in closet in addition to a private en-suite. The bathroom, like the one down the hall, features original cabinetry, fixtures, hardware and tile, and even features separate tub and shower areas.
It’s yet another example of how wonderfully efficient the floor plan is. Back down the hallway, the laundry room has it’s own large window for lots of natural light, and the other two walk in closets are on this same side of the hallway as the laundry and 2nd bath.
It’s fantastic that for a home designed in 1965, this house has so much storage on the main level, and a main-level laundry room. There’s truly no reason to even go into the basement on a day-to-day basis, so the house lives, easily, as a true ranch. And it’s another hallmark of the luxurious nature of the house, having all that storage and no steps to go up and down all the time. At the same time, having the basement house the utilities keeps them off the main level and keeps everything quieter as well.
Outside, it’s easy to appreciate how Schmidtke sited the house on the top of the hill, as well as the shape and size of the lot, bordered by the curve of Nottingham Lane, and set far back so that your views from inside are expansive and filled less with other homes, and more with nature.
“One night, there were two mature male deer with large racks,” says Clay, “along with a young buck standing in the front yard in the moonlight at midnight. It was a magical moment.”
Pat’s gardens are off towards the north corner of the lot, and there’s so much space around the house, peppered with beautiful, mature trees that offer shade and some natural separation from the next house over.
And while this is arguably the best spot within Sherwood Oaks, the community as a whole is beautiful, and somewhat hidden. Plus, as a dead-end subdivision, there’s no through traffic.
While Pat has loved living in this home for the 25+ years that she’s owned it, she decided to move out of state to be close to family, and so this beautiful work of modern architectural art designed by John Schmidtke is now available for only the 2nd time since it was first built.
This house sold on November 26th, 2024.
Click on any image in the gallery below to view images at a larger size.
