Richard Driehaus’ Lake Geneva mansion sold for record $36M

A Lake Geneva mansion that hit the market with a record price of $39.25 million in October sold for $36 million, more than the sum of the second- and third-priciest homes in the area.

The lakefront estate called Glanworth Gardens, once owned by late financial executive and philanthropist Richard Driehaus, sold to an unidentified buyer on Jan. 14, three months after it was listed in October, according to Crain’s.

Glanworth Gardens (Geneva Lakefront Realty)

The 12-bedroom, 14,145-square-foot Georgian-style home, designed by Rutan & Coolidge firm, went under contract after less than a month. David Curry of Geneva Lakefront Realty and Tim Salm of Jameson Sotheby’s International Realty, represented the seller. Geneva Lakefront Realty’s Curry also repped the buyer.

The mansion was built in 1906 for Norman Harris, founder of a banking firm that bore his name and grew into Harris Trust, now BMO Harris Banks. After Harris died in 1916, Yellow Taxi Cab Company founder Walden W. Shaw bought the estate, and he passed it down to his son-in-law Daniel F. Peterin, who was the president of Morton Salt.

Driehaus bought the property from the Peterkin family for $4.83 million in 1998 and restored the mansion. The estate also has a four-bedroom guesthouse, an orchard and 621 feet of lake frontage.

The second-priciest home in the area was a 40,000-square-foot mansion at Stone Manor that sold for $13.5 million in 2017, followed by a 13,000-square-foot house on South Lake Shore Drive that transferred hands at $12.75 million last year.

The home next door to Glanworth Gardens has a listing price of $20.75 million, the second-highest listing price in the area. The 12,396-square-foot, six bedroom Villa Hortensia hit the market in February.

[Crain’s] – Connie Kim