The Village of Lake Bluff conferred landmark status on a house whose new owners plan to spend at least $1 million bringing it back to its former glory.
On April 11, the village board approved landmark status for the home at 1010 Green Bay Road, which was designed by architect David Adler with landscaping by the Olmsted Brothers.
“We have such an incredible piece of architectural history,” said Michael Hoeft, who along with his business partner Trent Wisehart plans to restore the house. “We were looking for something historically significant by a noted architect.”
The house qualifies.
It was the first important residential commission for Adler and his partner Henry Dangler after they left the employment of architect and Lake Forest resident Howard Van Doren Shaw, according to Susan Benjamin, an architectural historian and consultant who researched the property for the landmark application.
Constructed between 1911 and 1914, the house was originally built on 40 acres in a style referred to as French eclectic.
The house is architecturally significant due to its “artistry, style and association with David Adler” wrote Benjamin in the landmark application.
“The building and site embody elements of design, detailing and craftsmanship of exceptional quality,” the application reads. “In addition, it has excellent integrity, having undergone almost no exterior alterations since it was constructed.”
The house has 17 rooms including a library, music room, gun room, mud room and breakfast room. It has a grand staircase, sun porch, terrazzo floor in the living room and a Louis XV Rococo fireplace mantel, according to the application.
The house was built for Ralph H. Poole, the older brother of Abram Poole, who was a classmate of Adler’s at Princeton.
Poole, who was from a distinguished Lake Forest family, bought the then 40-acre property in 1910.
Poole died in 1961 at the age of 82. The property was transferred to Poole’s daughter Nancy Poole Rich and her husband, who lived there until 1976.
Wisehart purchased the home in 2014.
Much of the land was sold off at an undetermined time and the house now sits on eight acres.
The house went on the market in September 2011 with an asking price of $2,595,000, said Catherine McKechney of Griffith, Grant & Lackie Realty.
It was taken off the market and then was re-listed in June 2013 at $1,995,000. Ultimately Wisehart bought it for $1,725,000.
McKechney said she wasn’t surprised by the amount of time the house was up for sale.
“It’s not unusual once you get over $2 million,” she said.
Hoeft and Wisehart have restored two houses in South Orange, N.J., both of which they say were sold at a profit.
Hoeft said a builder told him the home would take at least a year to restore.
“The last time it was updated was in the 1960s,” Hoeft said, adding that they expect to spend $1 million to $1.5 million on the restoration.
The project will include refurbishing the exterior, painting, refinishing the floors and upgrading the kitchen and ventilation, said Paul Bergmann, who serves on the Historic Preservation Commission of Lake Bluff.
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He’s pleased to see that Hoeft and Wisehart are taking on the restoration.
“While it’s in rather dilapidated condition, it’s really an architectural gem of a house,” Bergmann said. “We were starting to get worried about it. Houses sitting on that much property that don’t sell tend to attract developers whose ideas are not to renovate.”
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