UPDATE: Rundown Oscar Mayer mansion gets big price cut, with many more interior photos

UPDATE: Rundown Oscar Mayer mansion gets big price cut, with many more interior photos

UPDATE, February 27, 2015: The Oscar Mayer mansion has been marked down 20 percent, to $1.4 million, and many more interior photos are now available. Click here or on a photo to see them.


If you love Oscar Mayer wieners, this may be the house for you.

The mansion belonging to processed-meat magnate Oscar G. Mayer, former chairman of the famous company bearing his name, is on the market for $1.4 million $1.75 million, a price tag that really reflects the home's location rather than condition. This piece of Chicago's storied hot dog history needs more than a little elbow grease to make it livable again.

1936 Wienermobile. Click a photo for a slideshow.
1936 Wienermobile. Click a photo for a slideshow.

Located steps from the lake in Chicago suburb Evanston, the home features six bedrooms and five bathrooms over 7,400 square feet. The lot is about 2,000 square feet larger and includes a two-car garage and driveway where you could park your Wienermobile.

The home was built in 1901, and Oscar G. lived in it from 1927 until he died, in this home, in 1965. Evanston has since turned the home into a historic landmark.

But despite its famous history, the home has been sitting vacant. The dilapidated property is being sold by court order to pay off the late owner's debt, according to Crain's Chicago Business.

"It's a beautiful old mansion that unfortunately has been empty for a few years and needs someone to restore it to its grandeur," listing agent Dale Lubotsky of Jameson Sotheby's International Realty told Crain's.

Ivy has grown over much of the front exterior, windows are boarded up in the back, wallpaper is peeling inside, and dingy stains cover the bathroom floors and walls—and that's just what we can see from the few interior photos that have been released.

Nonetheless, hints of the home's original elegance shine through the charming front porch, stained glass windows, marble fireplace and grand carved wood staircase. There's also apparently a ballroom somewhere, according to the listing.

The local preservation commission was pleased to see it hit the market, hoping that new owners will reverse the disrepair the home has recently suffered.

The famous "If I Were an Oscar Mayer Wiener" jingle came out in 1965, the year Mayer died. The brand's other famous commercial, featuring a cute little kid fishing and naming his bologna O-S-C-A-R, came out in 1974.

Mayer left most of his fortune to charity. His son, Oscar G. Mayer Jr. (not Oscar H. Mayer, considering the alphabetical order of the middle names of his predecessors), took over the company the following year. It was sold to General Foods in 1981 and is now owned by Kraft.