Lake Forest Home Sells for $5.6 Million

The top end of Chicago’s residential market isn’t faring much better than home sales in mid and lower tier brackets.

The latest proof of this is a Lake Forest mansion that sold at a discounted price after slashing nearly $1 million off its initial $6.5 million July ask. The 13,000-square-foot home on Deerpath Road closed for $5.6 million after coming under contract in October.

The home was last sold for $3.7 million in 2018, but has undergone renovations and updates in the years since.

Built in 1925, the eight-bedroom, eleven-bathroom home was designed by New York-based architect Delano & Aldrich. The original home, called Fairlawn, was built in 1870 for Senator Charles Benjamin Farwell, an original settler of Lake Forest, according to the listing. The site has plenty of history, with the first golf game reported in the Midwest was supposedly played on the property.

The original home burned down in 1920, and its replacement, also called Fairlawn, was built by Farwell’s daughter Grace Farwell McGann. The formerly 18-acre property was later divided into nine lots, with the remaining house sitting on three acres.

Its elaborate gardens were designed as a series of rooms, according to the listing. Other amenities include a paneled library, sunroom, grand ballroom, pool and a seven-car garage — which is attached to the main house by a heated tunnel. The property also includes a coach house with one bedroom and a greenhouse.

Houda Chedid, an agent with Coldwell Banker Realty, represented the sellers, Bill and Dawn Kirsch.

Annie Royster Lenzke, also with Coldwell Banker Realty, represented the buyers, who are not yet identified in public records. Neither agent responded to a request for comment.

The Kirsches’ former home also went up for sale this week, another Lake Forest mansion listed for $8 million. The home is owned by a Delaware-based limited liability company, Specture Interests LLC. It purchased the home for $4.5 million from Kirsches in 2017. William Kirsch is an attorney and the former CEO of Indiana-based insurance company Conseco Inc.