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Residential
Chicago

Lake Geneva home sells for $17M in second-priciest deal ever

Villa Hortensia’s price was cut from more than $20M before selling

Lake Geneva, luxury housing
W3415 Snake Rd (Redfin, Getty)

Chicago’s high-end second homeowner haven Lake Geneva, Wisconsin notched its second-priciest residential sale of all-time, short of only the mansion sold earlier this year right next door.

A more than century-old lakefront home, known as Villa Hortensia, changed hands for $17 million, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The 1906-built home at W3415 Snake Road was designed by architect Howard Van Doren Shaw. The six-bedroom home sold in an off-market deal and the buyers haven’t been identified yet.

The 12,280-square-foot home sits on more than 20 acres, next to the city’s most expensive home on record: a 12-bedroom, 14,145-square-foot Glanworth Gardens mansion that Chicago billionaire J. Christopher Reyes and his wife, Anne, spent $36 million on in January of this year. The estate of late investment manager Richard Driehaus was the seller behind that home.

The sellers of Villa Hortensia, Ralph and Sally MacDonald, bought it in 1997 for a price that couldn’t be determined. They first listed the mansion for $20.75 million in May 2021 and later dropped the ask to $18.5 million.

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After the home remained unsold, the MacDonalds took it off the market and were later approached by real estate agent Wendy Murphy of d’aprile properties with an offer from the unidentified buyers.

Villa Hortensia was built in the Mediterranean style for Edward Swift of the Swift meatpacking family and named for his wife, Hortense. Its features include a stucco exterior, a red Spanish tile roof and 11 bathrooms.

The home has a domed entry hall on the first floor, a grand vaulted hallway on the second and original woodwork and oak floors throughout. Outside, there is a clay tennis court, in-ground swimming pool and original outbuildings that include a three-bedroom guest house. Along the 502 feet of level lakefront there are two piers and a private boat launch.

It’s unclear whether the buyers of the vintage home, which is in desperate need of repairs, will invest money into major renovations, or — given the extent of the age and decay — send in a wrecking ball and start from scratch.

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— Victoria Pruitt

Tags
Lake GenevaLuxury Housing