LFLB History Museum

Address: 20 W. Westminster, Lake Forest
Year built: 1907
Architect: Howard Van Doren Shaw
Original owners: Walter Stanton and Katherine Lancaster Brewster

This Italian villa-like house is on the west side of a post-glacial pond, on land that was the former site of the Atteridge farm. Two complimentary gatehouses on the east side of the pond once flanked the original estate entrance off Green Bay Road.

Image Source: Collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, Ryerson and Burnham Archives.

The classical design of the house incorporates hip roofs, deep overhangs and an arched loggia at the entry. Rooms on the ground floor are accessible through a grand central hall; two wings surround an outdoor courtyard. The garden terrace has an open “court porch” below. Off the master bedroom on the second floor is another open terrace.

Partial view of formal gardens at Covin Tree.

Olmsted Brothers laid the grounds of the estate. Kate Brewster created garden rooms in the manner of Gertrude Jekyll. These vignettes of seasonal blooms were off the west side of the house. From the back terrace there was a long view out to the Skokie lagoon.

Statue of St. Brigid, by Sylvia Shaw Judson, in niche of garden wall at Covin Tree.

Small garden pond with “Kneeling Girl” statue by Alfeo Faggi at Covin Tree.

Brewster Garden Plan: Topographical survey by James Anderson Company, surveyors of the Walter and Katherine Lancaster Brewster estate. The main house is on the right, a variety of gardens are west of the house. Image Source: Donnelley and Lee Library, Lake Forest College, Digital Collections.

The Brewsters were both patrons of the arts. Walter Brewster collected Whistler prints, now at the Art Institute of Chicago and their gardens displayed the work of Sylvia Shaw Judson, Carl Milles and Alfeo Faggi.

Katherine Lancaster Brewster (1879-1947) and Walter Stanton Brewster (1872-1954).

Covin Tree: The Brewster Estate