Mayflower Place: The Schweppe Estate

Making It Home
Mayflower Place: The Schweppe Estate

Entrance gates.

Solomon B. Smith and Jean Schweppe Armour at the Schweppe pool, 1962.

Solomon B. Smith and Jean Schweppe Armour at the Schweppe pool, 1962.

Pool during the estate's vacant period.

Pool during the estate's vacant period.

Address: 405 N. Mayflower Road, Lake ForestYear built: 1915-1917Architect: Frederick Wainwright PerkinsOriginal owners: Charles H. and Laura Shedd Schweppe
The Tudor Revival, Italian Renaissance-style brick and Bedford limestone mansion, with its sweeping lawn overlooking Lake Michigan, was a wedding present from John G. Shedd (Marshall Field & Co. President) to his daughter Laura, Mrs. Charles Schweppe.The site, off Mayflower Road just south of Forest Park, formerly housed the Lake Forest Hotel or "New" Hotel, which burned in 1877, and then the Walter Cranston Larned estate Blair Lodge (built c. 1880, demolished c. 1913).
The family hosted many notables, including Swedish royalty and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. After the Schweppes had passed away, family members stayed at the house for a time. Eventually, the home remained uninhabited for decades even as extended family maintained the pool for private use. 
The open pool was popular with local kids that would climb up to the estate from the public beach below to “pool hop.” According to Lake Forest’s deputy police chief in the 1980s, “I’ll bet every kid in town has been in that pool at one time or another. We have always regarded the place as an attractive nuisance.”
Fletcher Steele designed the pool, cabanas and adjacent arbors. The gated entry was the work of Roy Allen with ironwork by Samuel Yellin. Pray, Hubbard & Co. designed the Arts and Crafts-style terraces overlooking the lake and the iconic courtyard. Rose Standish Nichols oversaw the flower and rose gardens.
The 21,000 square foot interior featured an abundance of wood-carving, plasterwork and stone-cutting made popular during the Beaux-Arts period, 1890s-1920s.
In 1987, the estate was purchased and restored. The original property has since been divided into separate home lots and the pool and cabana no longer are attached to the main house.