Black Point Estate and Gardens

06/19/2026

2026 is the 250th anniversary of the United States of America. Over the next 250 days we will be highlighting historic people, places or things from around Walworth County.

Up next is John L. Chaney.

If your hobby was glassmaking and you worked for a thermometer company, observed the manufacturing process, and thought of a better, faster system, what would you do?

John Chaney devised a machine that could seal glass tubes better and faster. When he pitched his idea to the company, they were not interested. So he opened his own shop, perfected his machine, and eventually sold his invention to the Springfield, Ohio company he had been working for.

During World War II, the US armed forces contacted Chaney, now living in Lake Geneva, to research impurities in the glass components of explosives that were detonating unexpectedly. He hired local people, opened a shop in the old city garage on Main Street, and began producing higher-quality glass for the government.

In 1943, Chaney founded the Chaney Instrument Co. After the war, the company shifted its focus to making small glass tube thermometers for commercial use.

In 1958 the World’s Largest Glass Tube Thermometer was erected in downtown Lake Geneva outside company headquarters in recognition of their success.

Chaney Instrument Co. is still going strong under the Primex Family of Companies and remains headquartered in Lake Geneva.

Walworth@250: #171

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06/18/2026

2026 is the 250th anniversary of the United States of America. Over the next 250 days we will be highlighting historic people, places or things from around Walworth County.

Up next is George Braun.

George Braun was a significant player in the development of margarine as a substitute for butter.

Braun & Fitts manufactured butterine in the late 19th/early 20th century in Chicago.

Margarine had been invented in France in 1869 during a butter shortage due to the Franco-Prussian War. The invention was originally known as oleomargarine. Braun’s company later became known as Good Luck Margarine.

Wisconsin banned the sale and use of yellow margarine for 72 years to protect the dairy industry. The “Oleo Wars” resulted in Wisconsin residents smuggling oleo from neighboring states. The ban was lifted in 1967.

Mr. Braun’s home, The Echoes, on the south shore of Geneva Lake, was designed by Henry Lord Gay and completed in 1896. The mansion features a 2.5-story Queen Anne design, a distinctive rounded corner tower, and full-front veranda.

The estate was sold in 1913 to Amariah G. Cox. The estate was divided and the Brookwood subdivision created in 1957, while the house remains intact.

Walworth@250: #170

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06/17/2026

2026 is the 250th anniversary of the United States of America. Over the next 250 days we will be highlighting historic people, places or things from around Walworth County.

Up next is Louis Armstrong at the Riviera.

Louis Armstrong was a frequent headliner at the historic Riviera Ballroom in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, during the 1950s and 1960s. Known as "Satchmo," he famously returned to play the venue for ten consecutive summers, drawing crowds to the lakeside ballroom, which was a premier Midwest entertainment spot.

The Riviera Ballroom, built in 1932, was the site of his performances. His performances are a highlight of the venue's history, alongside other legends like Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, and Benny Goodman. Lake Geneva was a regular stop for National touring acts until the 1980s.

Walworth@250: #169

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06/16/2026

2026 is the 250th anniversary of the United States of America. Over the next 250 days we will be highlighting historic people, places or things from around Walworth County.

Up next is the Schwinn estate.

The Schwinn Estate was a prominent summer retreat on the north shore of Geneva Lake, Wisconsin, originally built in the 1920s by the Schwinn family of the famous Chicago-based Schwinn Bicycle Company.

While the original brick mansion was demolished, its legacy and the historic boathouse remain. Ignatz Schwinn, who started the Schwinn Bicycle Company in 1895, built a large, red-brick mansion on the hill in 1928.The Schwinn family summered on this north shore property, located just east of Cedar Point, for nearly 70 years. The family sold the property in the 1990s. The original mansion was torn down around 1995 and replaced with a graceful, modern French-country estate.

Although the main house is new, the property still retains the original historic boathouse. Locals and lakefront walkers still frequently refer to the property as the "Schwinn property," even decades after the original home's demolition.

You can catch glimpses of the grounds and the historic boathouse from the water or by taking a stroll on the popular 21-mile Geneva Lake Shore Path.

Walworth@250: #167

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06/15/2026

2026 is the 250th anniversary of the United States of America. Over the next 250 days we will be highlighting historic people, places or things from around Walworth County.

Up next is Alta Vista

Alta Vista is one of the most famous historic lakefront mansions on Geneva Lake, located along the picturesque north shore between Williams Bay and Lake Geneva. Built in 1920, this stunning Italian Renaissance villa is known for its white-stucco exterior, red tile roof, and steep terraced grounds leading down to the water.

The original Alta Vista was a Victorian Queen Anne-style mansion built in 1882 for steel tycoon Orrin W. Potter. It featured a wraparound porch and a four-story turret. In 1919 the original wooden house was destroyed by a fire right after it was purchased by Colonel William N. Pelouze, founder of the Pelouze Scale and Balance Company.

Colonel Pelouze commissioned renowned architect Howard Van Doren Shaw to design the Italian Renaissance-style replacement that stands today. The estate was owned by the Vick family, famous for Vick's Pharmaceuticals. The current owners have done an excellent job maintaining the historic appearance of this architectural masterpiece.

Walworth@250: #166

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06/14/2026

2026 is the 250th anniversary of the United States of America. Over the next 250 days we will be highlighting historic people, places or things from around Walworth County.

Up next is House in the Woods: AC Bartlett – Frederick Clay Bartlett – Florence Bartlett.

In 1929 House in the Woods was selected by Ladies Home Journal as one of the 12 most beautiful country homes in America. It was designed by Howard Van Doren Shaw in the Italian Renaissance style for hardware distributor AC Bartlett.

Bartlett’s son Frederic Clay Bartlett, an accomplished painter and muralist, contributed to the design of the main house facing the lake and a detached studio for himself. He also painted many of the murals in the home. The landscaped grounds were designed by the Olmsted Brothers.

Due to the building boom on the lake in 1905-06, the house was completed over the winter under a circus tent borrowed from PT Barnum just in time for Ms. Bartlett’s birthday.
Bartlett’s youngest daughter Florence’s involvement with the Eleanor Clubs of Chicago inspired her to contribute to the Eleanor Camp on Geneva Lake that offered single, limited-income working women the opportunity to vacation safely.

Walworth@250: . #165

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06/13/2026

2026 is the 250th anniversary of the United States of America. Over the next 250 days we will be highlighting historic people, places or things from around Walworth County.

Up next is Larry Larkin.

Larry Larkin is a Linn Township resident and widely celebrated historian, author, and engineer best known as the foremost authority on Lake Geneva's antique and wooden boat culture.

Before moving to Lake Geneva, Larkin assisted in designing the nose-cone recovery system for NASA's historic Mercury space capsule. He also held four patents in automotive transmissions and worked extensively in the engineering field.

A lifelong classic boat enthusiast, Larkin is famous for saving and restoring rare, historic vessels on Geneva Lake. He owns the Normandie (built in 1913) and the Sea Lark. He is the author of several books on the region's nautical past, including Grand and Glorious (2002).

In 2017 he received the Wisconsin Historical Society's Director's Award for Historic Preservation for his restoration work on steam yachts. Larkin is an active advocate for preserving the lake’s natural ecology, frequently speaking out on water quality and lake management.

Walworth@250: #164

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06/13/2026

Happening June 20th. Event and ticket information below.

Your devoted correspondent is breathless with anticipation over the social engagement of the season: an afternoon of games, leisure, and high society frivolity upon the verdant grounds of Black Point Estate and Gardens, that most resplendent of lakefront manors. Come experience parlor and lawn games the Victorian way and take a "swing" at these Gilded Age pastimes!

𝗝𝗼𝗶𝗻 𝘂𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗶𝘁𝘂𝘁𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗩𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗟𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴
💍 Weddings of Geneva Lake in the Gilded Age | June 20
🌳 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝗹𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗟𝗮𝘄𝗻 𝗚𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘀 | 𝗝𝘂𝗹𝘆 𝟭𝟭
✉️ The Art of Correspondence | September 12

Book your tickets: https://wihist.org/4fyQelU

06/12/2026

2026 is the 250th anniversary of the United States of America. Over the next 250 days we will be highlighting historic people, places or things from around Walworth County.

Up next is Aloha Lodge, Drake Family.

Aloha Lodge is one of the most historic and famous private luxury lakefront mansions located on the south shore of Geneva Lake.

The Southern Colonial-style mansion was commissioned in 1900 by Tracy C. Drake, the prominent hotelier who co-founded Chicago’s iconic Drake and Blackstone hotels. It was designed by renowned Chicago architect Howard Van Doren Shaw. The estate was named "Aloha Lodge" following an extended trip the Drake family took to Hawaii. The name was also a nod to their friendship with the deposed Hawaiian monarch, Queen Liliʻuokalani.

The Drakes spent twenty-one consecutive summers at the property, and the financial toll of the Great Depression forced them to sell the estate in 1936. Legend has it that the original Drake family china was left behind and remains in the home today.

Over the decades, the estate has been meticulously preserved and expanded, most notably by its late long-time owner Harold Byron Smith (former vice chairman of Illinois Tool Works).

A massive multi-year renovation completed in 2011 added two seamless wings to the property, tripling its footprint to a sprawling 20,000 square feet. The home contains 10 bedrooms, 13.5 bathrooms, a loft playroom with a climbable tree, and a massive lower-level recreation room. The estate sits on 12 private acres and features 368 feet of prime lake frontage, complete with a large private pier and five boat slips.

The property includes a 2,000-square-foot, 3-bedroom guest house known as the Captain's House (originally built for the family's boat captain.) Tracy Drake loved autumn colors so much that he had 100 non-indigenous sugar maples dug up from Williams Bay, wrapped, and transported via bobsled across the frozen lake in the winter to be planted across the estate.

As one of the crown jewels of Lake Geneva's "Newport of the West" legacy, Aloha Lodge frequently breaks real estate records. After hitting the market for $35 million, the Harold B. Smith Foundation officially sold the estate in August 2024 for $21.85 million, making it one of the most expensive residential home sales in Wisconsin history.

Walworth@250: #163

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