How Samuel Insull changed everything

In your Nov. 4 feature on the paucity of national landmarks in the suburbs, I commend you for mentioning the Cuneo Museum and Estate. As the former home of the great utilities magnate Samuel Insull, the house and grounds are the Monticello of our electron-driven way of life.

Insull championed bringing power to outlying areas long before FDR's rural electrification project. His (then) Libertyville home was part of what he called the "Lake County Experiment" that proved that it made economic sense to electrify rural areas and farms. When Insull first eyed the land in the first decade of the 20th century, most of the world was either lighted by dangerous kerosene or gas lamps. By the end of his life in 1938, electricity was in nearly every home, factory, store and office.

Insull had a lot to do with that. His home, once known as Hawthorn Farm, was the epicenter of what he called "the gospel of power consumption."

Featuring one of the oldest electric elevators in the country, the home was a showplace for a panopoly of popular conveniences. Insull even had an electric car in the garage. If there's any place that's deserving of national landmark status, it's Insull's home. Not only was it the domicile of a man who changed history, it stands as a living monument of how electricity changed -- and continues to power -- everyday life.

John F. Wasik

Grayslake