A historic mansion in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood, once home to a Black-owned hospital, was listed for sale last week at $1.2 million, according to Crain’s Chicago. The Victorian property at 3736 S. Indiana Ave., spanning over 11,000 square feet with eight bedrooms and ten bathrooms, is being offered for the first time in decades.
The listing has drawn attention from local preservationists who hope the building’s rich history will be protected. The mansion was converted into a hospital and sanitarium in 1926 by Dr. Ulysses Grant Dailey, a prominent Black physician from Louisiana. Dailey operated the facility until 1932 when it closed during the Great Depression, as reported by Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
Dr. Dailey had previously worked as a surgical assistant to Daniel Hale Williams at Provident Hospital and cared for Williams shortly before his death in 1931. Before Dailey’s ownership, the house belonged to Adolph J. Lichtstern, a German-born grain dealer and Chicago Board of Trade operator whose family lived there until the late 1910s, according to Baird & Warner.
Ward Miller, executive director of Preservation Chicago, said his group supports efforts to secure landmark status for the Renaissance Revival-style mansion. The property holds an Orange rating from the Chicago Historic Resources Survey—its second-highest distinction—indicating significant architectural or historical value within its community context.
Miller noted that architecture firm Dixon and Brookes built the mansion along with several other homes on Chicago’s South Side. The main house features three stories, eleven fireplaces, ornate woodwork, and a ballroom with city views on its top floor; an attached guest house remains on site as well.
With many similar homes lost over time in Bronzeville, Miller said preserving this structure would help retain important stories about those who lived there: “I think these histories really need to be captured, and if it were landmarked, we would know them better,” Miller said. “It would become part of Chicago’s amazing historical-built environment. This building is really important to the history of the Black metropolis.”
