By Bob Goldsborough
Chicago Tribune, April 22, 2001
Rocker Liz Phair and her husband, Jim Staskauskas, have sold their nine-room, 102-year-old row house in Lincoln Park for $660,000.
A Winnetka native, Phair, 34, released her first album, Exile in Guyville, in 1993 to widespread critical acclaim. Since then, she has released several other albums and has become nationally known for pushing the envelope with her frank lyrics about sex and relationships, as well as for a unique sound.
Phair and Staskauskas paid $510,000 for the three-bedroom house in 1996, after it had been on the market for $549,000, according to the multiple listing service. Features in the three-story house include a dramatic staircase, skylights, clerestory windows, two fireplaces and a lavish bath. Other features include a vintage facade and a lower-level space that can be used either as an office or for a nanny. The house originally was listed for $698,000, and stayed on the market for a little more than two months.
“It certainly is a terrific house,” said listing agent John Flynn of Baird & Warner’s Olympia Fields office. “It was completely gutted right before Phair and her husband bought it, so it has a classic exterior and a brand-new, more contemporary interior….”
Phair sold the house in Chicago because she has moved to Manhattan Beach, Calif. Flynn said Phair “finds it easier and more efficient to work in California.” Flynn also said he does not believe that Phair will even maintain a smaller residence in the Chicago area.
Phair and her husband sold the house to Walter C. Florence, a vice president with the Chicago venture capital firm Frontenac Co., according to public records.