Two red brick houses stand side by side on the 200 block of East Ontario Street, with brownstone trim, mansard roofs and bay windows facing the sidewalk. The city's landmark report says Burling & Whitehouse designed both in 1885, and both are low enough to read as a gap among the towers around them. Since early September, the door at 212 has been open to the public for the first time in about two decades. At 222, the dining rooms that served French food for nearly 50 years have been dark since last fall.
These houses outlasted the high-rise era because neither stayed a single-family home for long. Each has been a rental, a business, a club or a restaurant, and each stood empty whenever nobody had a use for it. This fall, the two of them sit at opposite points in that cycle.
Almost Every House East of Michigan Avenue Is Gone
In February 2020, the Commission on Chicago Landmarks recommended a district made up of 15 post-fire residential buildings on the Near North Side. City Council approved it on May 20, 2020. The city's announcement lists the addresses. Most sit west of Michigan Avenue, on Dearborn, State, Rush, Huron and West Ontario. Only 212 and 222 E. Ontario are in Streeterville.
The Commission's designation report explains why so few are left:
"Almost all houses east of North Michigan Avenue in Streeterville have disappeared in the wake of high-rise construction for offices, hotels, and medical facilities."
The report says the smaller houses that did survive usually lasted "through happenstance," most often after being split into apartments or turned into offices. The 2020 designation protects the outside walls of each building from major alteration or demolition. It does not decide what happens inside, and it does not find a tenant.
Two Houses, a Century and a Half of Other Uses
The designation report traces the two houses back to their first owners, and neither was a simple family home for long.
- 1885, 212 E. Ontario. Lumber-and-coal dealer Edwin F. Getchell bought the lot from the estate of William B. Ogden, Chicago's first mayor, and built the house as a speculative investment. Benjamin Douglass bought it a year later.
- 1885, 222 E. Ontario. Burling & Whitehouse designed a three-story Queen Anne house next door for Mayhew Adams Seymour.
- 1893. The Seymours moved out, and 222 became a rental.
- Later years at 212. The portrait painter George Peter Alexander Healy made the house his home. Block Club Chicago notes that he lived there at the end of his life. Healy painted several U.S. presidents, and his painting "The Peacemakers" has hung in the White House.
- 1920s. Aerial Photograph Service Inc. moved into 222. By 1928, the ground floor of 212 had become the Inn Cafeteria.
- 1940s onward. 222 became a private club and later housed restaurants.
- 1978. Restaurateur Jovan Trboyevic opened Les Nomades at 222 as a private club.
The architecture has stayed largely the same through all of it. The report describes 212 as Queen Anne and Romanesque Revival, with a wide bay, a mansard roof with an oriel dormer, deep red brick, brownstone trim and rock-faced quoins. Its neighbor at 222 has the same red brick and brownstone, plus a shallow bay and pressed-metal pediments.
Why a Jewelry Brand Bought 212 Instead of Renting
By the 2020s, 212 had gone about 20 years without a tenant. Its newest use came out of a spreadsheet. Block Club Chicago reported that Local Eclectic founder Alexis Nido-Russo spent about two years looking for a storefront in the West Loop, where she lost out on two rentals. With rents of $90 to $100 a square foot plus build-out costs, she decided that buying would cost less over time. She found 212 by searching online for commercial real estate for sale in Chicago.
She didn't get it on her first try. An unnamed restaurant group won the house, and she came back after that deal fell through. She closed in May 2024 for $3.3 million, according to the Cook County Assessor's office as cited by Block Club. The house is 13,000 square feet.
The gut renovation took about two and a half years. Along the way, crews found the original entry mosaic, a fireplace and mantel that had been hidden behind a wall, old newspapers and decorative plaques from the building's early years. Some of it was too damaged to restore, so Nido-Russo kept pieces of tile and other fragments to display later. That is typical of how houses like this get reused. The landmark rules protect the facade, so the money and the design work go into the interior.
What's Inside 212 Now
Local Eclectic was founded in 2013 and sells its own fine jewelry alongside pieces from independent designers. Until this house, it had operated only online. Block Club's Sept. 2 report said the store would open that Thursday. The first floor holds a café and three shopping rooms:
- The entry room is painted burgundy, with jewelry on the walls, a custom stone display case and a large fresh bouquet in the center.
- The back showroom is light pink and hung with a vintage Murano glass chandelier that Nido-Russo found in Paris.
- The side room has green velvet walls and the lower half of a ballerina sculpture turning slowly from the ceiling, meant to feel like the inside of a jewelry box.
The detail that ties the store to the house's past is a pair of paintings. Nido-Russo tracked down one of Healy's works, "Girl With Blue Bonnet," and had it restored. She then commissioned artist Sebastian Johnson to paint a modern version. The two hang facing each other.
Store hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday.
The café, called LE Café, is the part to watch. The plans call for a custom Metric coffee blend, wine, pastries, charcuterie, tinned fish, caviar and cocktails. The room is set under a hand-painted mural by French artist Philippine de Richemont, and laptops are not allowed. Outdoor seating is planned for next year. WTTW's fall restaurant roundup still listed it as coming soon on Sept. 21, and we found no announcement of an opening date since then. If it opens, this would be the first time in nearly a century that the ground floor of 212 serves food and drink to the public. The Inn Cafeteria was there by 1928.
222 Is Waiting for Its Next Use
Next door, the cycle is at an earlier point. Eater Chicago reported in late October 2025 that Les Nomades had closed after nearly five decades because its lease was ending and the building was up for sale. The restaurant was known for white tablecloths, fireplaces, flowers and a strict jacket policy. Roland Liccioni led the kitchen for much of its run and won the 1997 James Beard Award for Best Chef: Midwest.
The building's sale has been slow. Eater reported that 222 was listed at $3.5 million in June 2024 and that the restaurant's lease ran through June 2026. CoStar put the asking price at $3.4 million in August 2025. CoStar gives 1881 as the year the building was completed. This post uses 1885, the date in the city's designation report. As of early October 2026, we found no public reports of a completed sale, a buyer or a new tenant.
Compare that with next door. In May 2024, the same month 212 sold for $3.3 million, it had been empty for about two decades and had already lost one deal to a restaurant group. A buyer with a specific plan eventually came along. Like 212, the house at 222 is protected from demolition and alteration of its facade. What it needs next is a buyer or tenant who has a use for it.
On the Calendar This Fall
Before starting Local Eclectic, Nido-Russo worked at the Museum of Contemporary Art. The MCA has two things worth planning a visit around. SOAR's farmers market runs Tuesdays from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. on MCA Plaza through Nov. 4. Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers, a survey of more than 60 works, runs Nov. 7, 2026, through April 25, 2027. Both are an easy add-on to a stop at 212 E. Ontario.
Taylor spent years leading residential construction product teams before going into real estate, so houses like 212 and 222, and the work it takes to give an old house a new use, come up often in conversation. If you're weighing a vintage property, a conversion or a building with landmark rules, Taylor Nirchi can walk through what the rules protect and what a renovation involves. Let's Connect.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
