The Chicago suburb where the first American pope grew up will buy the boyhood home of Leo XIV, which local officials have been looking to preserve as a landmark since the pontiff’s election in May.
In a unanimous vote on Tuesday, the Board of Trustees in Dolton, Ill., agreed to acquire the modest three-bedroom house on East 141st Place — about 20 miles south of downtown Chicago — for a yet-to-be-determined amount.
Officials said that the village should not pass up the rare chance to own the property, which was put up for auction online with a reserve price of $250,000 around the time of Leo XIV’s installation.
“I will say this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Jason M. House, the mayor of Dolton, told the trustees during a meeting with the board. “We can either seize this moment and move it forward, or we can let that moment go to an investor.”
But some people in Dolton, which has grappled with deficits, potholes and the scrutiny of an F.B.I. investigation over spending by a former mayor, questioned whether the village could afford the purchase.
“Do we have the money?” Mary Avent, a resident, asked the board. She also wondered how much property maintenance would cost.
The house had been merely eyed as a flip property by Pawel Radzik, the man who bought it for $66,000 in 2024.
That changed this spring when the College of Cardinals chose Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost to succeed Pope Francis, who died in April, to lead the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
The brick home where the pontiff spent part of his childhood quickly became a tourist attraction, drawing a steady stream of worshipers and curiosity seekers to Dolton.
Mr. Radzik put the home up for auction in May after the property received tepid interest on the real estate market.
Steve J. Budzik, the broker representing the property, declined to comment on Wednesday about the board’s vote to buy the property.
Paramount Realty USA, a real estate auction firm that has already begun collecting bids for the property, did not immediately respond on Wednesday to a request for comment. Neither did the Archdiocese of Chicago, which village officials earlier said they had planned to work with to turn the home into a “historic site.”
Annette Mauro, who also lives in Dolton, soured on the village’s use of taxpayer money to buy the property.
“As a practicing Catholic, I see no reason why you want to buy that house,” Ms. Mauro told the trustees. “The house inside does not look anything like it did when Father Prevost lived there or his parents or his brothers.”
Some of the village’s trustees suggested that the interest in Pope Leo XIV’s boyhood home could be a boon to the local economy.
They mentioned having visited the home where the civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta and the house in Gary, Ind., where the pop star Michael Jackson grew up.
Imagine how many people might visit the place where the first pope born in the United States was raised, they said.
Kiana Belcher, one of the trustees, said opportunities like this were extremely rare.
“Unless,” Ms. Belcher said, “we have another pope or some famous person come from Dolton.”
Neil Vigdor covers breaking news for The Times, with a focus on politics.
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