Pope Leo XIV's boyhood home in Dolton is up for auction
Homer Glen-based home rehabber Pawel Radzik paid $66,000 last year for the modest, three-bedroom ranch-style brick house on 141st Place, and he gave it a major overhaul, saying last week that '80% of it is new — new flooring, new cabinets, new plumbing, new electrical, new kitchen.' He then listed the home in January for $219,000 before cutting his asking price to $205,000 later that month and then to $199,900 in February.
With the May 8 announcement that Dolton native and Cardinal Robert Prevost was the new head of the Roman Catholic Church, word broke out that the house that Radzik had been trying to sell had been the new pontiff's boyhood home. Prevost's parents sold their longtime house for $58,000 in 1996, and it had two subsequent owners before Radzik bought it.
Upon the naming of the pontiff, Radzik immediately pulled the house from the market and told Elite Street at the time that he was looking into 'what is the best option for me,' regarding the home, given its newly discovered provenance and heightened prominence.
Now, Radzik and his listing agent, Steve Budzik of iCandyRealty, have teamed up with auction house Paramount, with a June 18 auction date. The house has a reserve price of $250,000, meaning that Radzik has the right to reject any offers below that amount.
'We're looking for the value of the house,' Radzik said. 'We're trying to find out the value of the house.'
What a new owner would do with the home is unclear — perhaps turning it into a shrine to the new pope, or alternately restoring it to how it might have looked when the pontiff was a boy. No one disputes that the house has no real equal, as Prevost is the first American ever to become pope, and the 141st Place house is the only home Prevost ever lived in while growing up.
As a result, the house is the only dwelling in history inhabited by an American-born man who went on to become pope. How many bids the home will receive remains uncertain, but one thing is certain: The auction will draw a lot more attention than the average house auction.
'The more attention, the better for me,' Radzik said.
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