Only Frank Lloyd Wright House In Lake Forest Listed For $2.275M

LAKE FOREST, IL — The only house in Lake Forest designed by master architect Frank Lloyd Wright has returned to the market for the first time in more than a dozen years. The Dolores Mummert and Charles F. Glore Jr. House on Mayflower Road was commissioned in 1951 and built in 1953, becoming the final residential design by the iconic architect completed on the North Shore before his death.

One of the largest examples of the "Usonian" style, the 4,300-square-foot four-bedroom sits a few blocks south of Forest Park Beach beside a ravine — closer than current building code allows. It was listed earlier this month for $2.275 million, an increase of less than 5 percent since its last sale price in 2007.

Glore was a Chicago investment banker and an avid yachtsman. Wright's 12-room design suggests a nautical theme, with its walls of windows, galley kitchen and long, wood siding. A narrow entryway leads to a spacious two-story living room with south-facing walls of glass overlooking the ravine. The home's namesake spent only spent a few years in the house before he and Mummert divorced in 1959, according to her obituary.

The house subsequently fell into severe disrepair and was partially renovated in the early 1970s before becoming vacant, according to book "The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright." A second renovation completed in the late 1980s removed a greenhouse and added a terrace and a copper roof.

In 1999, the Glore House was purchased by Richard and Beth Katz for $1.425 million, records show. According to architectural firm Harding Partners, the house was at risk of being demolished and its lot subdivided by developers after languishing on the market for more than two years.

The Katzes' remodels created a family room out of a cramped, covered terrace and added an entertainment center, wet bar and air conditioning system, according to the firm. The outside terrace was also lowered to blend interior and exterior spaces in line with Wright's original design.

They included mahogany trim in the original style in the new addition and also added a three-car garage, listing the home for nearly $2.5 million, according to Chicago Magazine. The upgraded home was awarded a 2007 Merit in Architecture award for restoration from the American Institute of Architects Northeast Illinois and the 2009 Historic Preservation Award from the Lake Forest Preservation Foundation.

During the summer of 2007, fourth-generation Lake Forest resident Francis "Frank" Beidler IV and architect Megan Hauswirth Beidler were walking by the Glore House, located a few blocks from his childhood home. The couple, who had met in Los Angeles and recently become engaged, were planning a move to the Chicago area at the time. It turned out Frank Beidler had grown up a couple blocks from a Wright-designed property without ever knowing it, Megan Beidler would later tell Curbed Chicago. Beidler said the pair were not initially intending to buy the property — recalling she borrowed some jewelry from the mother of her future husband to appear a more likely purchaser at a showing.

But when they walked in, they decided almost instantly to take on the historic property, Beidler told Forest Bluff Magazine in 2016.

"We could barely afford it," she said, "but looked at each other and said, 'We can do this.'"

Thirteen years later, the couple are ready to move on. Beidler, who became a real estate agent in 2012 and is acting as the seller's agent, told Crain's Chicago Business she and her husband had updated the kitchen, three bathrooms, air conditioning, flooring and landscaping for an unspecified investment.

According to Lake County records, the property's estimated market value was reduced to $1.577 million following an appeal to the Board of Review. Its annual property tax bill was more than $28,000.

Explaining why the parents of three young children put the house on the market, Beidler told Realtor.com that she is marketing the home more as a midcentury modern design rather than one by Wright. Buyers have been snapping up airy open-concept modernist homes in recent years, while sellers have had trouble unloading some of the famed architect's designs.

"We're a young family, and I feel like at this point, I've touched every part of this house, and the longer we stay in it, the more we can mess it up," Beidler said. "It might be a chance to pass it off to someone else."

• Address: 170 N. Mayflower Road, Lake Forest, Illinois
• Built: 1954
• Lot Size: 1.92 acres
• Square Feet: 4,300
• Bedrooms: 4
• Bathrooms: 3 full, 1 half
• Last Sold: $2.175 million in October 2007
• List Price: $2.275 million in June 2020

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