Marshall Field Sells Massive Lake Forest Estate For $6.2 Million

LAKE FOREST, IL — A great-great-grandson of Marshall Field sold a massive Lake Forest estate for $6.2 million this week.

Offering the "utmost in privacy and unsurpassed natural beauty," the 15.2-acre property runs from the two-bedroom coach house on Green Bay Road at its east to the Derwen Mawr Nature Preserve trail from Laurel Avenue at its west.

Designed by Howard Van Doren Shaw and built in 1909, the estate includes a 17-room Georgian-style main house, guest house, greenhouse, wooded areas, swimming pool, meadows, ponds and trails.

A former stable offers room for six cars, according to its listing.

Marshall Field V, 80, was the seller. He is the oldest living heir to the fabled family fortune, which dates back to the mid-19th Century.

"They all started out with nothing in those days, and the biggest crooks won," he told a magazine in 1978 of his inheritance. "I was just lucky to come from a line of successful crooks."

Property records do not indicate when Field, who also owns a home in Florida, purchased the Green Bay Road property or for how much, but according to its listing, the estate had been a beloved family home for the past four decades.

"Continuing as stewards of this estate will be a decision you will not regret," it said.

After his father's death in 1965, Field took over as chairman of Field Enterprises, becoming the publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Daily News at age 24.

Amid business disagreements, Field and his half-brother liquidated the company in the early 1980s, selling the Sun-Times to Rupert Murdoch.

Field first listed his Green Bay Road property in November for $6.75 million, about two months after the death of his wife, Jamee Jacobs Field. The pair had been active local philanthropists with Lake Forest Open Lands, PAWS Chicago, the Art Institute of Chicago and many others since their 1972 marriage.

In 2010, the Fields closed their family foundation, transferred some assets to the Chicago Community Trust and converted it to a donor-advised endowment fund. After Field's grandchildren die, the trust will take control of the entire endowment, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The recently sold Field estate was originally owned by Prentiss Coonley and Mary Lord Coonley, according to Crain's Chicago Business. In 1935, President Franklin Roosevelt appointed Mr. Coonley to be head of the Division of Business Cooperation, a New Deal agency, and the family moved to Washington, D.C.

The Field estate is the second home this month to sell for a recent record-high price. The $5.35 million June 1 sale of the mansion custom built for an electronics company CEO in 2008 was the town's priciest purchase since Nancy Hughes spent $12 million on a lakefront property in January 2018.

• Address: 980 N Green Bay Rd, Lake Forest, Illinois
• Built: 1909
• Lot Size: 15.2 acres
• Square Feet: 9,167
• Bedrooms: 6
• Bathrooms: 9 full, 1 half
• Last Sold: n/a
• First Listed: $6.75 million in November 2020
• Sale Closed: $6.2 million on June 15

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