The National Organization of the Bahá’í Faith, which oversees the Bahá’í House of Worship in Wilmette, paid $1.515 million Oct. 3 for a vintage, four-bedroom, all-brick, Mediterranean-inspired home on Sheridan Road in Wilmette. it’s south of its campus.
It’s the latest home purchase by the nonprofit National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the United States, which since 2014 has paid $8.97 million to buy six homes immediately south of its campus.
Since its completion in 1953, the Baha’i House of Worship — also known informally as the Baha’i Temple — has been located at 100 Linden Avenue in Wilmette, on the northwest corner of Sheridan Road and Linden Avenue. However, until the last decade, leaders of the temple, which was approved for listing on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, had not acquired any real estate adjacent to the temple in any significant way.
Today, temple leaders purchased their sixth home in the past decade. George Davis, the director of the Baha’i temple, told Elite Street that the decision to purchase the house “is consistent with previously shared goals – that is, it is part of the strategy of long-term investment of the National Spiritual Assembly. Bahá’ís of the United States.
“The new acquisition allows us to support the preservation and beautification of the neighborhood near the Baha’i Temple,” Davis told Elite Street. “None of the houses acquired have been demolished and no such project is being considered.”
Davis has previously said the national organization of the Baha’i Faith receives a steady stream of rental income from the homes it now owns.
Built in 1919, the house was listed in September on the open market for $1.25 million. The house was previously sold in 2020 for $1.1 million.
The home features 4 1/2 bathrooms, two fireplaces, an eat-in kitchen with a large island and high-end appliances, a mudroom, a second-floor family room with custom built-ins, and a wet bar , a main bathroom. master suite, a third floor with a flexible living space and an adjoining heated garage for two cars. The house does not have a basement.
Outside on the 0.16 acre property is a fenced yard and two stone patios.
Temple leaders already owned five of the ten houses located in the half-block immediately south of the temple. With this new purchase, their land interests have ventured south of an alley for the first time, and the organization now owns the first of a total of 10 homes on that half-block.
The Sheridan Road home had a property tax bill of $24,591 for the 2023 tax year.
Goldsborough is a freelance journalist.