The village where Pope Leo XIV grew up intends to purchase his childhood home, which will possibly be turned into a historic site through collaboration with the Archdiocese of Chicago.
The house is now owned by Paramount Realty, an auction house. The village of Dolton sent Paramount Realty a letter earlier this week saying the village either intends on purchasing the home or to acquire it through eminent domain.
Burt Odelson, the attorney for the village, told local news outlet ABC 7 Chicago that eminent domain is a last resort.
"We've tried to negotiate with the owner. [He] wants too much money, so we will either negotiate with the auction house or, as the letter stated that I sent to the auction house, we will take it through eminent domain, which is our right as a village," Odelson said.
Buying the house, said Odelson, would enable people to continue to come see it.
"This really is a once-in-a-lifetime experience," he told ABC7.
Prevost home
The house, located at 212 E 141st Pl in Dolton, Illinois, has three bedrooms and three bathrooms. It was built in 1949, about six years before Pope Leo XIV's birth. The Prevost family owned the home for "nearly 50 years," said the listing on Paramount Realty USA's website.
Initially for sale in a more traditional manner, the house was pulled off the market following Leo XIV's election to the papacy. The house was renovated in 2025.
The reserve price of the house was set at $250,ooo. Before Pope Leo XIV's election, the property was listed for sale at $199,ooo. The house was purchased the previous year for $66,000, renovated, and then listed at $219,000.
Interest in the property skyrocketed after Cardinal Robert Prevost was announced as the new Successor to St. Peter, realtor Steve Budzik told People magazine.
“Within the day we had seven to eight offers on the property. We took the property off the market on May 8 and are reevaluating our next move,” he said.
Samir Mezrahi, founder of Zillow Gone Wild, a website that chronicles interesting or unusual finds on Zillow, told Aleteia that he found it "interesting that they pulled it for auction."
Potentially, he said, a buyer could "try to recreate it to how it used to be [or] turn it into an AirBnb," for superfans of Pope Leo XIV.
At the time the house was purchased, Pope Leo XIV had already been elevated to the College of Cardinals, something Mezrahi doubts the owners knew at the time.
"They did a pretty normal renovation to it," he said.
The Archdiocese of Chicago told Aleteia in an email Tuesday that it currently "does not have a plan in place concerning the property."
"The Archdiocese of Chicago appreciates the outreach from the Village of Dolton and our preliminary discussions regarding the former Prevost family home."
