You can have The House of Seven Gables at 1600 Somerset Lane in Wheaton, west of Chicago, for free. This historic brick mansion was designed by Jarvis Hunt. Hunt is a renowned Chicago architect who also designed many significant residences, buildings, and landmarks; including the nearby Chicago Golf Club clubhouse and train stations in Joliet and Kansas City.
The mansion was built in 1897 by steel magnate J. C. Morse as a wedding gift for his daughter Caroline Ely and her then-husband Arthur C. Ely. They were the first ones to have a telephone line installed in Wheaton. The mansion is currently used as a convent and part of the Loretto Center. The Loretto Center operates a conference/retreat center and a retirement home for the nine nuns who live on the estate. The convent has owned the property since 1946 and previously operated a preschool and other activities on the site.
The Pulte Group plans to build 48 single-family homes on the approximately 16-acre property as part of the proposed Loretto Club subdivision that will be targeting senior citizens. The company has recently entered into a contract to purchase the property. The Loretto Convent could no longer maintain the property and decided to sell. The land not only contains the mansion, but also has a chapel, dormitories, and a former daycare center. If The House of Seven Gables is not moved to a new plot of land before the end of the summer, it and the other buildings on the site will be demolished in preparations for the new development. Wheaton does not have an official historic preservation ordinance.
The House of the Seven Gables, located at 1600 Somerset Lane (formally 2s304 Hawthorne Land), was included on Landmarks Illinois’ Chicago/and Watch List in 2009 as part of ‘The Colony at the Chicago Golf Club.’ Landmarks Illinois is a statewide nonprofit group advocating for historic and architecturally significant buildings and places. The Colony was included on their Watch List that year due to the numerous demolition threats that were occurring in the historic community. The Colony is one of the nation’s earliest developments of exclusive golf club residences with homes built between 1896 and 1916. Most of those historic colony homes, with the exception of The House of Seven Gables, are now being used as permanent dwellings for Wheaton residents.
The House of Seven Gables is architecturally and historically important to the city of Wheaton and seen as an irreplaceable historic estate home. Wheaton was once a rural farm town where the wealthy would summer while golfing at the Chicago Golf Club, the first 18-hole golf club in the U.S. The House of Seven Gables has been described as the ‘crown jewel’ of the historic houses in Wheaton. Therefore, the mansion is considered by preservation officials to be eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. With a listing in the National Register of Historic Places, a homeowner could benefit from the property tax assessment freeze program for the rehabilitation of historic homes.
One suggestion to avoid demolition was incorporating the mansion into the new development, similar to the successful reuse and residential conversion of Wheaton’s former downtown courthouse. Another suggestion was allowing a university or foundation to be responsible for preserving the house on new land. The mansion could also be restored on a new site and used in the hospitality and rentals industry. Although there are no completed estimates for the cost of the relocation, the house itself is estimated to value between $3 and $3.5 million.
CONTACT INFO
Bonnie McDonald
President
Landmarks Illinois
312-922-1742 x224
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Nancy Flannery
Chairwoman Wheaton Historic Commission
City of Wheaton Illinois
Phone: 630-260-2000
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