Price Cut To $6.5M For Topsfield Farm In Lake Forest

LAKE FOREST, IL — The sellers of the 27-acre Topsfield Farm estate dropped its asking price last month, leaving it $2.5 million lower than its listing last year. The huge, historic estate, now priced $6.5 million, features a Stanley Anderson-designed Georgian main home incorporating a farmhouse from the 1840s as its centerpiece.

For decades it was owned by the third-generation chief of Chicago-based Quaker Oats, Robert D. Stuart Jr. The CEO, co-founder of the anti-WW2 America First Committee and Ambassador to Norway under President Ronald Reagan, bought the estate in 1950 and lived there until he died at age 98 in 2014.

The home has only had four owners in its storied history, according to its listing.

The pastoral property includes a four-stall horse barn, a three-car garage, two fireplaces, tennis courts, a horse-riding area, a two-bedroom guest cottage, a heated enclosed porch, a sauna, a below-grown indoor pool and an outdoor pool with a cabana house.

The grounds include picturesque views of ponds and 12th hole of the nearby Conway Farms Golf course – built on land cut from the estate in the 1990's.

Property records indicate Stuart's son, Alexander D. "Sandy" Stuart, is the current owner. The former finance chairman of the Illinois Republican party, editor for Fortune magazine and board chairman of Chicago Public Media, the parent company of radio station WBEZ, now manages the family fortune through North Star Investments, Inc.

In 2015, Governor Bruce Rauner named him to the Illinois Teachers Retirement System Board of Trustees but later withdrew the appointment in November 2016 following opposition from teachers.

» Check out more photos from 1601 Conway Road's Realtor.com listing

» Photos via Realtor.com

Drone video of the property:

• Address: 1601 Conway Rd, Lake Forest, Illinois
• Price: $6,500,000
• Square Feet:
• Bedrooms: 6
• Bathrooms: 7 Full and 1 Half Baths
• Built: 1930

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