The Famously Narrow ‘Pie House’ of Deerfield

A suburban Chicago home has become known locally as the “Pie House” because of its resemblance to a wedge-shaped slice of pie.

Built in 2003, on an oblong plot of land in Deerfield, Illinois, the Pie House has become somewhat of a local tourist attraction, with people stopping by regularly just to take pictures of the unusually narrow building. Famous for its unique shape, the Pie House was born out of necessity, as developer Greg Weissman of Advantage Properties tried to make the best of an oblong piece of land only 0.09 acres in size, which is unusually small for the suburbs. Despite one of the walls being only 3-feet-wide, the Pie House turned out quite cozy, and ended up selling for little over $284,000 in 2007.

Photo: Zillow

Photos of the Pie House of Deerfield, a north shore suburb of Chicago, recently went viral after photos of it were posted on Zillow. The owners decided to move and originally listed the property for $339,000, but later reduced the price to $325,000 and $309,000 before taking it off the market for a while. It was relisted in January for $299,900, and according to the Zillow listing it sold last week for $260,000.

Photo: Reddit

Featuring 1,122 square feet of livable space, the Pie House is considered a precursor of the modern tiny house. Photos taken inside show that the wedge-shaped home is much more spacious than it looks from the outside, but that hasn’t stopped people from joking that the house looks more like a hallway than an actual house, and asking how anyone can live there.

Photo: Zillow

“It is different than any other house that’s built in Deerfield,” listing agent Alan Berlow told The Chicago Tribune. “It attracts attention from many walkers and bikers. Commuters walk by and drive by every day, as it’s across from the parking lot. It’s an alternative to a town house without having the maintenance fees.”

Photo: Zillow

The one-storey Pie House features two bedrooms – one upstairs and another one int he fully furnished basement, two and a half bathrooms, and an open space ground floor. For obvious reasons, it lacks a garage, but does have a parking pad that can hold six cars.

 

Photo: Zillow

The “skinny house” even went viral on video sharing platform TikTok, where a short clip showcasing its narrow side got over one million views. According to Wikipedia, the house flares out to around 25-feet-wide at the other end.