Lake Forest Mansion Lists for $8M

A listing for a 95-year-old estate in Lake Forest is nearly double its last sale price from five years ago.

The 13,000-square-foot French-style manor at 1460 Lake Road is listed for $8 million, a 75 percent increase from its sale price of $4.5 million in 2017. Some of the increase in the price can be attributed to an extensive renovation the home, first built in 1927, underwent in recent years, according to the listing.

The 2-acre property includes landscaped grounds as well as the seven-bedroom, nine-bathroom home. It was designed by Harrie T. Lindeberg, an American architect known for designing country homes across the nation. The home’s brick and limestone exterior has been completely restored, and the home has original high ceilings, custom millwork and original German silver hardware. The property also has a “fence” made of arborvitae trees ensconcing the property from public view.

The home is owned by a Delaware-based limited liability company, Specture Interests LLC. It purchased the home for $4.5 million from William and Dawn Kirsch. William Kirsch is an attorney and the former CEO of Indiana-based insurance company Conseco Inc.

The owner brought some star power with its choice of @properties agent Brandie Malay to market the listing. She’s well-known for her role as a real estate expert on HGTV shows “Designed to Sell” in Chicago and “Hidden Potential,” as well as Bravo’s “Property Envy.” Malay did not respond to a request for comment.

The home is one of many designed around the turn of the 20th century across Chicago’s North Shore to mimic the style of European country houses.

A similar home in Lake Forest on Rosemary Road, with ties to “The Great Gatsby” author F. Scott Fitzgerald, sold for $7.5 million in August, the highest price paid for a home in the town in four years. The last time a home sold for more in Lake Forest, among Chicago’s most affluent suburbs, was 2018, when Nancy Hughes, widow of 1980s filmmaker John Hughes, paid $12 million for a 3.4-acre property on nearby Mayflower Road.

The Rosemary Road home is a six-bedroom, 11,600-square-foot property built in 1888, and known as “La Vieille Maison.” It was remodeled in 1910 for well-to-do newlyweds William and Ginevra King Mitchell. She inspired the character Daisy Buchanan in Fitzgerald’s literary classic.