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civilmousefan
09-25-2009, 10:52 AM
The home that Walt Disney was born in is currently on the market.

brownie
09-25-2009, 03:56 PM
from the Chicago Sun-Times:

Market for Walt Disney's home quiet as a ...
MOUSE HOUSE
After a year, no buyer for famed animator's Chicago birthplace

September 25, 2009
BY KARA SPAK

Walt Disney could make a mouse pilot a steamboat and romance blossom between a cocker spaniel and a mutt. But that famous Disney magic doesn't seem to be working on a modest Hermosa Park two-flat he once called home.

Disney's birthplace at 2156 N. Tripp has been on the market for more than a year, said owner Radoje Popovic. In 2006, Popovic and his wife, Barbara, also unsuccessfully tried to sell the home on eBay.

The couple bought the home in 2002 for $190,000 and currently are listing it at $199,000.

Popovic says the building occasionally attracts Disney devotees who want a glimpse of the block where the Disney empire began.

Popovic, 62, grew up in the former Yugoslavia and immigrated to the United States in 1976, where he built his career as a real estate developer. He said he has a soft spot for the Disney movies of his youth.

"Every Sunday, when we were good, we would go see Disney cartoons," he said. "Today, kids have options -- they can go on the cell phone and other stuff like this -- but for us, that was it."

Walt Disney's father, Elias Disney, built the home in 1893 after coming to Chicago to work in construction for the World's Columbian Exposition. The animator was born there in 1901, and the Disney family sold the home and moved to Missouri in 1906.

In 1999, Popovic purchased his first Chicago home on Tripp and developed a relationship with the woman who was living in the Disney house. He told her he wanted to buy the house if she ever sold.

In 2002, she called him while he was in Belgrade caring for his sick mother and told him to make an offer.

"I didn't think twice," he said.

He dreamed of establishing an art center for neighborhood children in the building, where they could be inspired by Disney's artistry, as he and his brothers -- one of whom is an artist in Serbia -- were. "We went as far as talking with the alderman," he said.

Now, he's settling for the reality he may be selling the home for a loss. "I can't even get the money I paid," he said. He currently rents the building's two units.