Lake Forest Mansion With 400-Foot Beach Asks For $12 Million

LAKE FOREST, IL — A lakefront mansion with a private beach longer than a football field was listed for the first time since its redesign was completed eight years ago. The pair of former Goldman Sachs executives and philanthropists who conducted a decadelong expansion of a 1920s-era former art gallery listed it Wednesday for $12 million — the highest residential sale price in Lake Forest history and the second most expensive asking price currently on the market.

The six-bedroom, limestone, brick and timber home was completed in 2001 and designed by Stuart Cohen of the Evanston-based husband and wife architecture studio Stuart Cohen & Julie Hacker Architects, according to the listing. The 17-room house includes nearly 8,900 square feet of living area on a 2.7-acre lot.

The original structure was designed by Alfred Hoyt Granger, according to the home's listing. Granger designed Lake Forest City Hall, several buildings on the Lake Forest College campus and more than 50 buildings in Chicago, including the Lake Bluff, Lake Forest and many other North Shore railway stations, according to a history of his career from the Lake Forest-Lake Bluff Historical Society. It said he is credited him with influencing the "Lake Forest 'look.'"

The bluff was landscaped in an "engineering feat" that took five years to complete, with stone paths, steps and terraces leading down to a 2,500-square-foot boat house and about 400 feet of protected beach, according to the listing.

There are several patios and balconies, and the house's lower level includes a home theater, exercise room and wet bar with lake views.

According to public records, the home was last purchased for $1.9 million in 1991 by Connie and Tom Duckworth, both former Goldman Sachs executives. They met while working for the oil company Arco, according to a 2004 Wharton Magazine profile. Connie Duckworth was the first woman to be a sales and trading partner in the history of Goldman Sachs, where she spent 20 years after a brief stint at the oil company out of business school. She serves on the boards of several companies and charities and was also the first woman to be named chairman of the board of NorthShore University HealthSystem.

After retiring from Goldman Sachs in 2001, Duckworth founded the nonprofit organization Arzu after a trip to Afghanistan in 2003. The organization focuses on breaking the cycle of poverty for women weavers through economic empowerment. Arzu Studio Hope partners with contemporary designers to create patterns that are woven by hand by women in Bamyan province. Weavers are provided educational, health care and other support.

"I wanted to do whatever industry would employ women and employ them now," Duckworth said in a promotional video, noting the organization started with 30 weavers and has grown to produce over 1,000 jobs and support 4,000 family members in rural areas with little economic opportunity. Rugs made by Arzu Studio Hope fill the interior of the Stone Gate Lane home, according to a profile of the home in Make It Better magazine.

“Here is global iconic architecture married with the poorest, most vulnerable group of women in the world, and it’s the artistry bridging these two worlds,” Ms. Duckworth told the magazine. She is also a member of the U.S.–Afghan Women's Council, a public-private partnership founded by the State Department involving the governments of both countries.

According to the 2013 profile, the home was originally built as an art gallery for a since-demolished manor house. Over the years, additions doubled the size of the home. So the Duckworths got rid of everything but the three rooms in the original structure — consisting of a large living room, a dining room and an artist's studio on the second floor. Mr. Duckworth told the magazine the process of finishing the interior of the home took 10 years and involved many historically accurate finishes. Much of the woodwork and lighting in the home was designed and created in England, according to its listing.

The Duckworths' asking price matches the record for Lake Forest's most expensive residential home sale. In January 2018, local philanthropist Nancy Hughes, widow of filmmaker John Hughes, purchased a $12 million lakefront mansion on Mayflower Lane. Her 12,500-square-foot Cape Cod style home on a 3.4 acres was never publicly listed, but its sale was first reported by Crain's Chicago Business last July, and the Chicago Tribune's Elite Street column last week identified Hughes as the buyer behind the Delaware-based purchasing entity, "Vista Del Lago LLC."

The Stone Gate Lane listing has the second-highest price of any Lake Forest residential properties presently on the market. A nearly 8-acre lakefront estate designed by Harrie Lindeberg and built for a steel tycoon in 1916 is asking for $15 million, which is the highest price in the suburbs.

The home has a fair market value of $5,165,484 for taxing purposes, according to the Lake County Assessor's Office. Its most recent available annual property tax bill was about $100,000. Listing agent Ann Lyon has not responded to requests for comment.

• Address: 77 Stone Gate Lane, Lake Forest
• Price: $12 million
• Square Feet: 8,865
• Bedrooms: 6
• Bathrooms: 6 full, 2 half
• Originally Built: 1928
• Last sold: $1.9 million in 1991

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