King Edward’s Love Nest!

King Edward’s Love Nest!

King Edward's Love Nest!

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On the shores of Lake Michigan, just north of Chicago, is a mansion so grand that it once hosted the former King of England. Edward VIII was the English King who gave up the British throne in 1936 to be with the American divorcee Wallis Simpson, the woman he loved. Edward and Wallis were guests here in 1939 and slept in a bedroom on the western end of this home’s second floor. Their bedroom looked out over a fountain court enclosed by ivy-covered brick and limestone walls.

In 1917, as war raged in Europe, Chicago’s wealthy elite were still enjoying the bounty of the Golden Age. These families produced landmark American companies and many of the goods that we still buy one hundred years later. They also built fabulous mansions with a level of craftsmanship that is almost impossible to duplicate today.

Such was the case of two important families, John G. Shedd, chairman of Marshall Field & Co. and donator of the Shedd Aquarium to Chicago, and the Schweppe family, heir to the carbonated beverage company. Since families of great fortune usually married into other families of great wealth, the marriage of Laura Shedd and Charles H. Schweppe seemed made in high society heaven. John Shedd gave his daughter this magnificent estate as a wedding present. Today, it is still considered to be one of Chicago’s most important homes.

Laura Schweppe died at age 58 of a heart attack, leaving Charles only $200,000 of her $10 million estate. Charles became despondent from the financial slight as well as loneliness and committed suicide at the mansion in 1941. From that time the house stood empty, but maintained, for almost 50 years. It was purchased in the late 1980s and underwent a total two-year restoration by 70 craftsmen, including Italian artisans and Bavarian stonecrafters. However the couple who did the restoration divorced, and the home went to foreclosure in 2009, leaving the estate to the bank.

The grand 24,500 square foot English Renaissance mansion sits on 5.3 lushly landscaped private acres overlooking Lake Michigan with approximately 400 feet of beachfront. The 10 bedroom, 16 bath interior has 11 fireplaces, library, family-game room, elevator, sauna, leaded glass windows, and hand-carved limestone stairs, fountains and ballustrades. The exterior is graced with balconies, terraces and gardens with lake views.

Chicago's Schweppe Estate on Lake Michigan that hosted Edward, Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson, priced at $12 million.

Source: www.coldwellbankeronline.com