Historic Lake Forest Property Sells For $2.45 Million

LAKE FOREST, IL — An historic home between Lake Forest College and Lake Michigan with connections to some of Lake Forest's founders — and one of the city's oldest private swimming pools — sold last week for $2.45 million.

The property is one of several subdivided out of the home of early Lake Forest resident Calvin Durand, who was the city's mayor from 1891 to 1895 after returning from service in the Civil War.

Durand's home, dubbed "Merrie Meade," was built in 1875 by a friend Durand met during the war, according to newspaper archives maintained by Lake Forest College.

The future mayor fought in Tennessee in the fall of 1863 before being captured by Confederate forces in Atlanta and held prisoner in South Carolina, according to a timeline prepared the Lake Forest-Lake Bluff Historical Society. His family has continued to be represented in Lake Forest for more than four generations.

Merrie Meade was eventually purchased by the Berginham family and demolished in 1939, with the property subdivided into five lots.

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The recently sold six-bedroom house built on the property was designed by local architect Jerome Cerny and built in 1955 for Daisiana Giles, who was also a member of the Durand family.

Giles, who was first married to the grandson of Carson Pirie Scott before later marrying former Lake Forest Mayor John Giles, lived in the home for nearly four decades.

Family described her as a fixture in town who "frequently commented on the changes the village had undergone, complaining about increased traffic and the population," according to a 1999 obituary.

The home's next owner added a covered back porch and attached the home's garage. According to seller Peter Witmer, a local architect. Most significant renovations for the house were completed by the 1990s, but several elements have been updated since 2014.

Witmer said the pool and the nearby gardener's cottage next to a ravine on the 2.21 acre lot were part of the original estate, and built before the mid-century home. According to the home's listing, the cottage was designed by Howard Van Doren Shaw.

"They used to have glass blocks you could put lanterns in to light the pool at night," Witmer said. "It used to be a pool that didn't have much a filter system then, where they would just dump out all the water and refill it with a four-inch pipe."

Witmer and his wife, Nina, purchased the property in June 2006 for $3.225 million, according to property records. They first listed it in June 2019 with an asking price of $2.75 million and an offer was accepted in October 2020.

The Witmers are remaining in Lake Forest, he said, moving downtown into a condominium building designed by Witmer's architectural firm as part of the McKinley Road redevelopment.

The recently sold property's estimated market value for taxing purposes is about $2.2 million, according to the Lake County Assessor's Office. Its annual property tax bill is about $40,000.

• Address: 901 Spring Lane, Lake Forest
• Built: 1955
• Lot Size: 2.21 acre lot
• Square Feet: 5,192
• Bedrooms: 6
• Bathrooms: 6 full
• Price: $2.45 million

Listing information originally appeared on realtor.com. For more information and photos, click here.