Mr. T's Tree 'Massacre' Site Sells For $5 Million In Lake Forest

LAKE FOREST, IL — The historic Tudor mansion that was the site of Mr. T's infamous "chain saw massacre" sold Monday for $5 million. Known as Two Gables or the Laurance Armour estate, the 7.4-acre property was first listed more than four years ago at 50 percent more than this week's closing price.

Built in 1910, the estate was designed by Harrie Thomas Lindeberg, a New Jersey-born architect who was in partnership with Lewis Colt Albro at the time.

Landscape architects Jens Jensen, Rose Standish Nichols and Louise Hubbard originally designed the grounds, according to the History Center of Lake Forest-Lake Bluff.

The estate was designed for Chicago banker Orville Elias Babcock Jr. and his wife, Ellen. His firm, Babcock, Rushton & Co., was later described as one of the city's largest stock and brokerage concerns.

Babcock was the son and namesake of a Union general who served as President Ulysses S. Grant's right-hand man before being forced out of the White House amid corruption charges. The elder Babcock went on to become a lighthouse inspector in Florida, where he drowned on the job in 1884.

In 1913, the Babcocks sold the property to Laurance Armour, heir to a meatpacking fortune, and his wife, Frances Withers Armour.

After a fire in 1928, the Armours brought in Chicago architects David Adler and Stanley Anderson to rebuild the home.

The actor and Chicago native Mr. T, born Laurence Tureaud, purchased the estate for $1.7 million in 1986, which equates to more than $4.2 million when adjusted for inflation.

For reasons Mr. T has never publicly explained, the "A-Team" star supervised the felling of more than a hundred mature oak trees on his property in 1987, wielding a chainsaw alongside landscape workers, the New York Times reported.

The result, according to a Chicago Tribune report, left the estate looking as uf it had been recently "ravaged by an army of beavers."

Residents dubbed it the "Lake Forest Chain Saw Massacre," and city officials responded with a new tree preservation ordinance the following year.

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In 1993, Mr. T deeded the house to his girlfriend, who sold it in 1999 for $2.4 million to a preservationist couple who wound up never moving in.

It changed hands again in 2003 when a pair of developers purchased it for $3.85 million and began a restoration project that expanded the house from 10,000 square feet to more than 15,000 square feet.

Supervised by architect Michael Bressman, the renovation won a 2006 Rehabilitation Award from the Lake Forest Preservation Foundation.

Through an entity called Legacy Preservation Partners LLC, the developers put the property up for sale with a nearly $12 million asking price in 2007.

But after Norstates Bank foreclosed on the property, it was sold to Neil and Jane Cummins in 2009 for just $4.625 million.

Since then, the Cumminses have reportedly added at least 150 mature trees, a new front wall and a coach house to the property. They first put it the house on the market in March 2017 with an asking price of $7.5 million, later trimming the price tag to $5.5 million.

"The estate has been meticulously cared for and continues to be," its listing said. "The serene park-like yard and grounds allow for almost anything you can imagine."

The nine-bedroom estate includes a pool, pool house, 10 fireplaces, an elevator, sauna, basketball court and a pair of garages with room for a combined six cars.

According to Lake County records, the estimated market value for tax purposes is $5.37 million, and its annual property tax bill is about $50,000.

It is the fourth Lake Forest home to sell for more than $5 million in the past year — the third this month — an indication that the coronavirus pandemic has increased demand for spacious suburban properties and left the wealthiest homebuyers with no shortage of cash.

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