Lake Forest mansion with McCormick family ties seeks $6M

The 2.2-acre property includes 265 feet of the Lake Michigan shoreline

Compass' Elizabeth Wieneke with 367 Bluffs Edge Drive (Compass, Zillow)
Compass' Elizabeth Wieneke with 367 Bluffs Edge Drive (Compass, Zillow)

Lake County’s luxury market slid during the summer months, but it hasn’t stopped some sellers from seeking top dollar.

A Lake Forest home on Lake Michigan is the latest example, as it became the 16th publicly listed property asking more than $5 million on the suburban North Shore of Chicago.

The property features 265 feet of shoreline and is listed for $6 million. This is the first time it’s been on the market in over a decade. 

Designed by Mid-Century architect John Black Lee, the sale would reap a nice profit for the sellers if it closes at its asking price. It last sold for $2.1 million in 2011.

The 5,000-square-foot home at 367 Bluffs Edge Drive has four bedrooms and five bathrooms and has been completely renovated. It is among 16 public listings asking $5 million or more on the North Shore.

Built in 1960 by Lee, it is owned by Karen Guenther and Arlington Guenther. Arlington is the retired CEO and co-founder of IT firm Arlington Computer Products. 

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The couple’s real estate agent, Elizabeth Wieneke with Compass, didn’t respond to a request for comment.

This is one of four listed over $5 million in Lake Forest, including a $5.3 million home built in 1916 for members of a prominent Chicago family, the McCormicks, which has a connection to the Bluffs Edge property. Lake County’s top five sales in July ranged from $2.2 million to just under $4 million, making this listing somewhat of an outlier.

Still, high-end sales aren’t uncommon in the area. Nancy Hughes’ Lake Forest home listed at $15 million is currently under contract and the family behind Garrett Popcorn Shops sold their Lake Forest property for $4.72 million in August.

In early August, another Lake Forest mansion, this one with ties to F. Scott Fitzgerald, sold for $7.5 million, marking the priciest sale in the town in four years. That six-bedroom, 11,600-square-foot home, known as “La Vieille Maison” hit the market in March 2021 with an asking price of $10.5 million. It was built in 1888 for a Chicago map publisher, but was sold in 1910 to affluent newlyweds William and Ginevra King Mitchell. She inspired the character Daisy Buchanan in Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby.”

The 2.2-acre Bluffs Drive property the Guenthers listed was once home to the estate of Cyrus J. McCormick Jr., the president of the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company. The family was a strong business force in Chicago, as McCormick is credited with inventing the mechanical reaper, enabling farmers to harvest more grain.

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