Classic country estates of Lake Forest : architecture and landscape design 1856-1940

Lake Forest, Illinois, 30 miles north of Chicago on the western shore of Lake Michigan, has been one of America's elite residential communities for one and a half centuries.

Spread across the edge of lakeside bluffs and along deep ravines, hundreds of elegant country estates house the families of Chicago's commercial, professional and cultural leaders - the greatest concentration of American country estates to be found between the two coasts.

Lake Forest architecture and landscaping reflect a significant interplay of leading practitioners and design theories spanning the 19th and 20th centuries.

This guide offers a tour of the houses, landscapes, gardens, gentlemen's farms and country clubs that have made the community a landmark of architectural and landscape design.

Architectural renderings, landscape plans, drawings and period photographs of architecture and gardens, many of them not previously published, illustrate the work of these masters and the fabulous lifestyles of a bygone era.