A five-bedroom, 6,239-square-foot brick and stone house that was the dairy barn for the short-lived Meadowood Farm gentleman’s farm in Lake Forest sold on May 4 for $1.81 million.
Built in 1928 and converted to a residence in the 1950s, the striking former dairy barn on Hathaway Circle in Lake Forest is known for having a massive second-floor hay loft dome measuring 60 feet in diameter. The onetime dairy barn was designed by architect Ralph Varney for construction firm owner Clifford Milton Leonard, but the farm — which consisted of seven farm buildings that were constructed but no main house — did not operate for long, listing agent Sally Wood of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago told Elite Street.
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Instead, the farm, whose buildings were designed as a re-creation of a 16th-century French Normandy farm, operated until only about the 1930s, when it went moribund. It stayed that way for the next two decades or so, when the farm buildings all were converted to single-family homes, which stand to this day on Hathaway Circle.
The dairy barn has been continually updated, Wood said. It now has 4-1/2 bathrooms, a library, an attached silo with three levels of living and a first-floor primary bedroom suite with two walk-in closets and an updated bathroom with a dual vanity, a soaking tub and a steam shower. Other features include hardwood floors, 18-inch-thick walls, spiral staircases, exposed brick walls and an updated white kitchen with travertine flooring, quartzite counters, a modern tile backsplash, a Sub-Zero refrigerator and a La Cornue range.
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“The hay loft is in the original condition from when the home was built and it’s just an amazing piece of architecture, and everyone who walks in is just wowed and awed by it,” Wood said. “My clients lived there 10 years and did quite a bit of interior work updating the house, and they’re just so excited to see the home passed on to the new owners for them to enjoy and honor it the way they have.”
Outside on the 0.8-acre property are a swimming pool and professional landscaping. The seven former farm buildings were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.
The house first had been listed in January for $1.99 million, and its price was reduced to $1.89 million in March. The sellers paid $1.275 million for it in 2013.
The property had a $26,959 property tax bill in the 2020 tax year.
Public records do not yet identify the buyers.
Goldsborough is a freelance writer.
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