The Lincoln Park town house vanished almost as quickly as Sasha Adler fell for it. One look was all it took for the AD PRO Directory designer to become convinced she’d found her family’s forever home—only to watch the listing go dark days later.

The residence, a pair of combined 1800s row homes in the leafy Chicago enclave, checked all the boxes: within walking distance of her three kids’ school, original architectural details intact, historic block, and ample outdoor space. It even allowed the entire family to have all their bedrooms on the same floor—unusual for a town house. The home’s price tag, which exceeded the designer’s initial budget, barely registered. “I was just obsessed with it, so I showed it to my husband,” she recalls. “And then as quickly as we saw it, it disappeared from the market.”

The central staircase, clad in a Cannon/Bullock wall covering, makes a statement with a verdigris lantern from Jamb above a circa-1970s Angelo Mangiarotti table from Milan.…