Many people know the Playboy Mansion as a symbol of Los Angeles—where Hugh Hefner lived much of his life. However, few are aware that the first mansion was actually located in Chicago’s Gold Coast.
Located on 1340 N. State Parkway, it was Hefner’s home, workplace, and a spot for what he’s most known for—incandescent celebrity-filled parties.
From a surgeon’s home to the original Playboy Mansion
Designed by architect James Gamble Rogers and built in 1899 for wealthy Chicago surgeon George Snow Isham, the brick-and-limestone mansion stood just two blocks from Lake Michigan. With 72 rooms, the property offered plenty of space (and privacy) for Hefner’s ambitions.
In 1959, Playboy Enterprises purchased the sprawling mansion for a reported $400,000.
After buying the mansion, Hefner added an indoor pool, steam room, sauna, bowling alley, movie screening room, and even a fireman’s pole. His bedroom, complete with a circular bed measuring 100 inches in diameter, doubled as his office.
In the 1960s, the Chicago mansion served as the headquarters for Hefner’s Playboy magazine. It wasn’t until 1971 that Hefner purchased his Los Angeles mansion and began spending less time in Chicago.
What is Chicago’s original Playboy Mansion today?
With the bunnies gone and parties long over, Chicago’s original Playboy Mansion entered a more private chapter.
The complex was listed for $2.3 million by late 1976, with the asking price rising to $2.5 million a year later. While it waited for a buyer, Hefner’s apartment and office remained virtually untouched, with many of his personal belongings still inside.
When no buyer materialized, the mansion found an unexpected new purpose. In August 1984, the main building became Hefner Hall, a School of the Art Institute of Chicago dormitory leased for just $10 a year.
Under that agreement, the school purchased the adjoining property at 1336 N. State Parkway for $500,000. Playboy Enterprises formally transferred ownership of the main mansion to the Art Institute in 1989, before its eventual sale and condo conversion.
The Gold Coast property at 1340 N. State Parkway was sold to developer Bruce Abrams in 1993 and converted into seven luxury condominiums—meaning the former party house is now a collection of private homes rather than a single residence.
And its post-Playboy chapter came with some substantial price tags. In 2011, one of the converted residences—a massive 7,874-square-foot condominium—was listed for $6.7 million.
