Mill Road Farm Golf Club: Tough Stuff

In 1925, noted golf architect William Flynn designed a course for Albert Lasker’s new estate, Mill Road Farm, that looms large in the lore of Chicago golf. Its difficulty was legendary. Length ranged...

Ragdale: Where Art Meets Prairie

Ragdale was the beloved country estate of one of the Chicago area’s greatest residential architects, Howard Van Doren Shaw. In 1897, on 33 acres just west of Green Bay Road, Shaw created a relaxed, su...

The Cows Next Door: Grace Durand's Crab Tree Farm Moves to Lake Bluff

It was all thanks to a blunder, Grace Durand said years afterward, that she was able to expand Crab Tree Farm. One night in 1905 when the family was away, a stock dealer left a group of cows on the Du...

"The Last Buffalo Hunt This State Will See"

Location: Mellody Road and Waukegan Road, Lake Forest

In 1905, an incident occurred at Arcady Farm, Arthur Meeker’s country estate. His son Arthur Meeker Jr. recalled the scene in Chicago, With Love: “Not content with conventional animals alone, Father m...

Goat Snarls Lake Forest Traffic

On September 28, 1928, traffic snarled to a halt in front of Market Square, putting a kink into Lake Foresters’ morning commute. The cause? A lone billy goat chewing on a battered tomato can. After se...

Lakelandwood: The Field Estate

Address: 315 Moffett Road, Lake BluffYear built: 1912-1913Architect: Daniel Burnham & CompanyOriginal owners: Stanley and Sara Brown FieldThe nephew of department store magnate Marshall Field, Stanley...

Beauty Beside the Lake: Helen Shedd Reed House

“Don’t let us make this a stuffy house.” -Helen Shedd Reed, in Town & Country, 1934.

Centaurs: A Renaissance-Inspired Estate for the Hamill Family

Address: 1115 E. Illinois Road, Lake ForestYear built: 1913Architect: Henry Dangler and David AdlerOriginal owners: Alfred E. and Clarice Walther HamillAlfred Hamill’s cousin, Ecole des Beaux-Arts tra...

Covin Tree: The Brewster Estate

Address: 20 W. Westminster, Lake ForestYear built: 1907Architect: Howard Van Doren ShawOriginal owners: Walter Stanton and Katherine Lancaster BrewsterThis Italian villa-like house is on the west side...

Elsa and A. Watson Armour Family: Elawa and Beyond

As you know, the Armour family has a deep connection to Chicago as one of the city’s foremost pioneers of industry. Several members of the family have been residents of Lake Forest.

Fairlawn II: Estate of Grace Farwell McGann

Address: 965 East Deerpath, Lake Forest; garage at 1010 Spring LaneYear built: 1923Architect: Delano & AldrichOriginal owner: Grace Farwell McGann and Robert G. McGannFairlawn I, the Charles B. Fa...

Havenwood II: Second Lake Forest Estate of the Ryersons

Address: 1075 E. Ringwood Road, Lake ForestYear built: 1914Architect: Howard Van Doren ShawOriginal owners: Edward Larned and Mary Pringle RyersonEdward Ryerson’s first Lake Forest estate, Havenwood I...

In "Play"n Air: The Ragdale Ring

Plays written and adapted by poet and playwright Frances Shaw were performed at her Lake Forest home, Ragdale, by family members and friends. In 1912, her husband, architect Howard Van Doren Shaw, des...

Innisfail II: The Cudahy Estate on Green Bay Road

Address: 830 N. Green Bay Road, Lake ForestYear built: 1930Architect: David AdlerOriginal owners: Joseph and Jean Morton CudahyKnown as Innisfail II, this French Norman house clad in square-cut lannon...

Map: Lake Forest, 1881

Many streets in Lake Forest changed their names in the 1910s.Depot Avenue --> McKinley AvenueHazel Avenue --> Church StreetLinden Avenue --> College RoadPoplar Avenue --> Rosemary RoadMapl...

Mayflower Place: The Schweppe Estate

Address: 405 N. Mayflower Road, Lake ForestYear built: 1915-1917Architect: Frederick Wainwright PerkinsOriginal owners: Charles H. and Laura Shedd Schweppe

Innisfail I: The Cudahy Estate

Address: 275 SussexYear built: 1914Architect: David Adler and Henry DanglerOriginal owners: Joseph M. Cudahy and Jean Morton Cudahy

Map: Lake Forest, Lake Bluff and environs, 1922

Lake Forest and Lake Bluff at the height of the estate era in the 1920s. At the time, the western city limits of Lake Forest only extended to the future site of the Skokie Highway in the north, and to...

The Judah Estate on Westminster

Address: 111 West Westminster, Lake ForestYear built: 1928Architect: Philip Lippincott Goodwin; David Adler (garage)Original owners: Noble Brandon and Dorothy Patterson JudahBuilt between 1924 and 192...

Villa Turicum: Opulence and Melodrama

Year built: 1908-1918Architect: Charles PlattOriginal owners: Harold and Edith Rockefeller McCormickVilla Turicum is perhaps the best known of Lake Forest’s country estates, not least for its converge...

Walden: Luxury and Simplicity in Natural Surroundings

Year built: 1896Architect: Jarvis HuntOriginal owners: Cyrus and Harriet Hammond McCormickThis 100-acre New England Shingle-style country estate was named Walden after Henry D. Thoreau’s book on livin...