Historic Louis Swift House In Lake Forest Sells For $2.25 Million

LAKE FOREST, IL — The Louis F. Swift House in Lake Forest sold for $2.25 million earlier this month — less than half of the historic estate's previous inflation-adjusted sales price.

The seven-bedroom mansion was designed by Howard Van Doren Shaw for the heir to the Swift meatpacking fortune in 1916. The 10,000-square-foot brick and stone structure was originally built as an expansion that doubled the size of Swift's existing 1898 mansion.

After Swift's death in 1937, his 35-room estate remained empty for years. During World War II, it was used by the Navy to house 15 families of officers stationed at Great Lakes Naval Station. The original, wooden half of the mansion was demolished in the late 1940s.

More than six decades ago, the property was purchased by Halbert Gillette, the second-generation CEO of Scranton Gillette Communications and a former Lake Forest alderman. The standalone Shaw-designed wing was converted to a single-family home by local architectural firm Stanley Anderson and Associates in 1956.

In 2005, the home was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Out of the approximately 30 country homes Shaw designed in Lake Forest, the Swift House is one of four Italian Renaissance Revival villas. The other three have either been demolished or largely dismantled, according to a history of the home prepared by architectural historian Susan Benjamin for its inclusion on the registry.

The interior includes detailed plaster ceilings in its solarium, mezzanine, living room and dining room, according to the home's listing. Its exterior features formal gardens around a restored fountain.

The estate also includes a side lot with about 1.8 acres of buildable land that can be sold separately in the future, its listing said.

In 1924, the Swift House hosted the Prince of Wales during his visit to Lake Forest as a private citizen. The prince would later become King Edward VIII before abdicating the throne in 1936 to marry Wallis Spencer, an American woman.

According to the Lake Forest-Lake Bluff Historical Society, Spencer was reportedly living on Oakwood Avenue in Lake Forest at the time of the prince's visit, although they would not meet for another six years.

Property records show Laura Rosch Gillette and Edward Scranton Gillette purchased the property from a trust for $3.5 million in 2003, the equivalent of $4.95 million in 2020 dollars.

The home was first listed for sale in June 2019 with an asking price of $3.95 million. Two price cuts later, the asking price fell to $3.1 million. The $2.25 million sale closed Nov. 6. The new owners are not yet identified in public records.

According to the Lake County Assessor's Office, the 2020 estimated market value of the property for taxing purposes was $2.06 million for the parcel with the house on it and about $686,000 for the side lot. Their combined annual property tax bill is about $50,000.

• Address: 255 E. Foster Place, Lake Forest, Illinois
• Built: 1916
• Lot Size: 3.5 acres
• Square Feet: 10,029
• Bedrooms: 7
• Bathrooms: 5 full, 2 half
• Last Sold: $3.5 million in December 2003
• First Listed: $3.995 million in June 2019
• Closing Price: $2.25 million on Nov. 6

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