Thursday, March 12, 2009

The original Playboy Mansion



The original Playboy Mansion ..
Address: 1340 North State Parkway, Chicago, IL 60610 ..
Architect: David Adler
Completed: 1899 ..

It was built for George Swift Isham and acquired by Hugh Hefner in 1959. Hefner divided his time between the Chicago mansion and the Mansion West [Los Angeles, California], moving full time to the California mansion in 1974. The Chicago mansion boasted a brass plate on the door with the Latin inscription:
"Si Non Oscillas, Noli Tintinnare"
Translated: "If you don't swing, don't ring" ...
It is no longer occupied by girls with bunny ears but is divided into three family homes.





# For more on the historic Gold Coast District.. click here..

4 comments:

Laura Ricker said...

I used to live in this mansion before it was converted. I don't know what it looks like now but before with the roman baths, slide to the underground pool and kabana bar, and secret passages you couldn't beat this as a great place to live while going to college

Anonymous said...

yes any one who wants to live in mansion..
Very comfartable you will still be in Dublin - looking forward to that for a while now

Neal said...

The architect of this building is actually James Gamble Rogers, not David Adler.

David said...

James Gamble Rogers was in fact the original architect. I was the architect for the renovation into it's present use as condominiums. When we started the project, we came across old blue prints in the basement from 1914 of the house. Beautiful drawings.