Deerpath Road Mansions On Market For 1st Time In Decades

LAKE FOREST, IL — A pair of mansions on Deerpath Road on either side of downtown Lake Forest have recently hit the market for the first time in decades. A 66-year-old French Provincial estate on 5½ a block west of City Hall was listed last month for $4 million, while a 150-year-old historic Greek Revival nestled beside the Lake Forest Library was put up for sale this month asking for $3.5 million.

The home at 440 E. Deerpath Road, dubbed "The Evergreens," is located on what is believed to be the first occupied house after the founding of Lake Forest, according to its listing. Its seller saved the structure from the wrecking ball and carried out an extensive renovation after purchasing it four decades ago. In 1978, the 2½-story brick house was listed among 60 significant properties in the Lake Forest Historic District in the National Register of Historic Places.

Most of its 15 rooms feature original interior shutters, while the lower level has antique English molding, mantles and hardwood flooring. The five-bedroom, 5,859-square-foot house includes a wine cellar and tasting room, nine fireplaces.

The home's 1.2-acre fenced-in yard is surrounded by mature trees and hedges down a brick driveway just east of the library parking lot. Its backyard includes a private garden patio space.

Property records show the home is owned by the family of the late antiquarian Bruce Southworth, who died in 2012. Southworth, a former Sears marketer, and his wife, interior designer Mary Southworth, purchased the home in August 1976, according to a profile in the Chicago Tribune published a decade later.

It said the home was originally built in 1869 for C.H. Quinlan, a doctor and dentist who was among the founders of Lake Forest. But when the Southworths first purchased it, the property was in poor condition following a fire in 1950.

"Everything was falling down. All the water pipes were broken. They were trying to tear it down," Mr. Southworth told the Tribune in 1986. "A builder had bought it and wanted to put in condominiums."

The Southworths salvaged and rehabbed the home, crediting it with kicking off their careers as antique dealers, according to the Tribune. In 1980, they opened the Samlesbury Hall Ltd., a downtown Lake Forest antique shop which has since closed.

Now, the home's "elegant decorating enhances the architectural features typical of a substantial Midwestern home of the post-Civil War period," according to its listing.

The fair market value of the property is $2,076,030, according to the Lake County Assessor's Office. Its annual property tax bill was more than $35,500. It was listed Feb. 8 for just under $3.5 million.

The newer and more expensive of the two properties, 30 E. Deerpath Road, is located about a block west of City Hall.

The sprawling estate includes a one-story main house with five bedrooms and more than 7,900 square feet of living space on a gated 5.57-acre lot on the northwest corner of Deerpath and Green Bay roads.

Inside, floor-to-ceiling windows face east to offer expansive views of the spacious lawn. The grounds feature a pond, a pool, terraced gardens and multiple patios.

The property includes a separate coach house designed by David Adler with seven rooms of its own, an attached pool house and two-car garage and a detached three-car garage with a workshop and greenhouse, according to its listing.

Property records show the home is owned by a trust established on behalf of Betty Rich, who died last July.

According to the Lake County Assessor's Office, the fair market value of the property is $3,668,934. Its 2017 annual property tax bill was more than $63,600. It was last sold September 1988 for $2.9 million and listed Jan. 28 for nearly $4 million.