Home with Lots of History Featured in Winter Wonderwalk Dec. 9 & 10
What do former President Woodrow Wilson and actress Mary Tyler Moore have in common? They both were guests at one of the locations featured in this year's Winter Wonderwalk & Holiday Boutique benefit for Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart.
According to information compiled by its present owners, the home to be viewed at this site was constructed in 1916 as the power house and gardener's cottage - one of three buildings on an estate built for the widow of Cyrus McCormick, inventor of the mechanical reaper and founder of McCormick Harvesting Machine Company which later became part of International Harvester. Wilson made several visits to the Lake Forest estate.
Its power house was converted into a full residence in the early 1950s by the property's second owners.
Fast forward to 1980: The home's third owner, Potter Palmer IV, great-grandson of the man who built Chicago's Palmer House hotel, allowed Moore and her and family to stay at the house while she filmed scenes in and around Lake Forest for the 1980 motion picture "Ordinary People." The movie, in which Moore co-starred and actor Robert Redford made his directorial debut, is about an upper-middle class Lake Forest family trying to resume a normal life after the death of one teenage son and the attempted suicide of their surviving son. It won four Academy Awards including Best Picture and Redford as Best Director.
The current owners, who bought the house from Palmer in 1997, have undertaken a series of renovations with "the dream of restoring a sensible flow, while hoping to return it to the integrity of its original era."
This is one of the four architecturally significant Lake Forest homes that will be part of the Winter Wonderwalk Housewalk Tours from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 10. Participants will have the opportunity to go inside this year's homes, which have been uniquely decorated for the holidays.
In addition to the Housewalk Tours, there's also a Holiday Boutique on Dec. 9 from 1 to 5 p.m. and a Sip & Shop from 6 to 8 p.m. at Woodlands Academy, 760 E. Westleigh Road in Lake Forest. Nearly 50 vendors will be selling a variety of distinctive items. The boutique also will be open on Dec. 10 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Advanced tickets for Winter Wonderwalk may be purchased online at www.woodlandsacademy.org. Early bird tickets (prior to Nov. 27) cost $55. General admission tickets purchased at the door are $65. Boutique-only tickets are $10 online or $15 at the door. Winter Wonderwalk tickets may be picked up at Woodlands Academy from 1 to 8 p.m. on Dec. 9 and beginning at 9 a.m. on Dec. 10.
Winter Wonderwalk is one of the major fundraising events hosted by the Woodlands Academy Mothers Club. Proceeds will benefit the school's financial- aid program. Nearly one-third of the school's student body receives some form of assistance.
For Winter Wonderwalk & Holiday Boutique information, visit the Woodlands Academy Web site or contact Tami Rocha at trocha@woodlandsacademy.org.
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Founded in 1858, Woodlands Academy is an independent Catholic college preparatory day and boarding high school for young women. It's part of a worldwide network of Sacred Heart Schools that spans the United States and 40 other countries. A nonprofit, Woodlands Academy's identity is rooted in Saint Madeleine Sophie Barat's desire to inspire young hearts and minds to excel, to lead lives of integrity and to serve. For more information about Woodlands Academy, please visit www.woodlandsacademy.org