A house in Homewood—built in the early 1950s and once held up as an innovative model for lower-cost construction in the post-World War II building boom—is on the market, with many of its original features intact but in need of updating.

If the tale of a Berwyn house that came on the market in May is any indication, the Homewood house could sell super-fast and over the asking price. The Berwyn house, built in 1957 on 26th Street, went under contract to buyers in four days and sold for $286,000, 8% above what the sellers were asking.

In Homewood, the asking price is $225,000 for a two-bedroom house on a little over a third of an acre on Perth Avenue. Michelle Arseneau of Coldwell Banker Realty is the listing agent.

The house has original wood walls, ceilings and built-ins, some of them painted and some still in their natural look.

“It’s a classic midcentury house: lots of open space, lots of big windows, lots of wood,” said Tom Katskee, who’s selling the house, where his mother, Syvia Tillman, lived for 28 years before her death in 2020.

Built in 1953, it was the design of architect John McPherson. While not as well known these days as Keck & Keck or Edward Dart, McPherson, who was based in Homewood, was known as an innovator in the midcentury era, according to architectural historian Julia Bachrach.

According to a 1961 Better Homes & Gardens article about the house—entitled “You’ll find comfort at low cost in this home”—McPherson cut building costs by “concentrating on simplifying construction. The main components of the house, designed on a four-foot module, were built in the shop and brought to the site to be assembled.”

The article shows the home’s bookcases, skylights and tongue-and-groove wood ceilings looking much as they do in the present-day listing photos.

The house is positioned sideways to the street with its largest span of windows to the south for maximum passive use of solar heat. Along that side, there are panels of louvers beneath rows of plate glass windows, a pre-air conditioning tool that allowed for air flow without intruding on expanses of glass.

The louvers are still operable, Katskee said.

Tillman and her husband, Raymond, bought the house in 1994, according to the Cook County clerk. Raymond Tillman died in the late 1990s.

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