WTTW’s Phil Ponce downsizes to $527,500 Northbrook home steeped in artistic history

WTTW-Ch. 11 contributing anchor Phil Ponce and his wife, Ann, have decided to downsize in a unique way, paying $527,500 in mid-June to buy a three-bedroom ranch cottage on a 1.5-acre property in Northbrook that is steeped in Chicago-area artistic history.

Phil Ponce was a correspondent and host of WTTW’s “Chicago Tonight” program from 1992 until 2021. He now has the title of Alexandra and John Nichols Contributing Anchor at the station, and he occasionally fills in when needed on “Chicago Tonight.”

In Northbrook, the Ponces’ new house was sold to them by the Morrison-Shearer Foundation. The Northbrook property previously had been shared by two long-standing professional partners and artists, photographer Helen Balfour Morrison, who died in 1984, and choreographer Sybil Shearer, who died in 2005.

“This home was the locus of their creative activities,” Phil Ponce told Elite Street. “Whenever someone in their sphere would come to Chicago, they would come here. This was the Midwestern version of the Bloomsbury Group.”

So when the Ponces saw the Northbrook property, they were “hooked,” Phil Ponce said.

“My wife paints and my daughter and daughter-in-law are photographers,” he said. “The history of this property spoke to us, and the creative spirit in this home is palpable.”

Ponce added that the couple initially hadn’t been in the market to downsize from their four-bedroom, 5,000-square-foot house in the North Side Lincoln Square neighborhood. But they saw the Northbrook property and “my wife was smitten,” he said.

On top of the artistic connections, Ponce noted that the Northbrook estate has a never-executed landscape plan for the property by noted landscape architect Jens Jensen. As a gardener himself, Ponce said he was thrilled to see Jensen’s signed landscape plan for the property.

“My head almost exploded,” said Ponce, who added that he plans to start to implement Jensen’s plan on the property. “This property lends itself to the kind of planning that Jens Jensen put in.”

In addition to the creative ties, Ponce also noted that his and his wife’s grandchildren now live on the North Shore, and that made a move appealing. Their son Dan, who’s a news anchor on WGN-Ch. 9′s morning news program, lives in Glencoe, and their son Anthony, who’s an anchor and reporter for WFLD-Ch. 32, resides in Wilmette.

“There were so many reasons to do this (move),” Ponce said. “I can’t overstate the importance of being near our grandchildren — that’s half of it. And then half of it is the property.”

Built in 1941 and designed by architect Robert Seyfarth, the three-bedroom, 1,696-square-foot ranch cottage that the Ponces bought has two full bathrooms, two fireplaces, a galley kitchen, 8-inch-wide plank hardwood floors, floor-to-ceiling windows, and two closets in the primary bedroom. Other features include an attached two-car garage and a partial basement.

Outside on the property is a two-room historic log cabin that functioned as a studio of sorts for Morrison’s husband, Robert, until his death in 1966. Seyfarth had found the log cabin, which dates to the 1800s, and he brought it disassembled to Robert Morrison, who reassembled it by hand. Robert Morrison used the cabin as a hobby building, and it housed a small printing press that he used to print advertising notices and dance programs for Shearer. Ponce said he and his wife plan to restore the cabin.

Until recently, the foundation had used the ranch cottage as its offices. The foundation first listed the property at the end of March for $475,000, and went under contract to sell to the Ponces a little over a month later. Separately, the foundation on May 26 sold Shearer’s former studio-residence nearby and its 1.43-acre lot for $260,000.

In Lincoln Square, Phil and Ann Ponce paid $600,000 in 2009 for their four-bedroom home, which they listed in May for $1.6 million. They restored the house from 2010 until 2016, including updating the plumbing, electrical, roof, siding and mechanicals, and they kept intact or sourced vintage hardwood floors, the staircase, the fireplace tile and moldings.

Other features include 3 ½ bathrooms, a fully finished attic and a kitchen with a large island, a Fisher & Paykel range, a warming oven and a butler’s pantry. Outside, the property has a wraparound back deck, a two-car garage with a built-out roof deck and a side lot with a playhouse. In addition, it has a lofted coach house with a full bathroom and its own mechanicals, which Ann Ponce has used as a studio.

The Ponces currently have a contract pending to sell their Lincoln Square home.

“It’s very bittersweet leaving the city and our neighbors,” Ponce said. “We were not looking. If we hadn’t seen this (Northbrook property), we’d have stayed put.”

The Ponces’ Lincoln Square home had a $30,081 property tax bill in the 2021 tax year.

Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.

Join our Chicago Dream Homes Facebook group for more luxury listings and real estate news.