Haunted Schweppe Mansion:
For Sale CHEAP!
Located at 405 Mayflower Road in Lake Forest, Illinois (a Northern suburb of Chicago), stands the Schweppe Mansion, also known as Mayflower Place, a very magnificent and ornately styled English Tutor home of 25,000 square feet. The mansion has been on the real estate market continuously since 2011, it’s sale price originally set at $18 million dollars U.S. and which today is being offered for a measly $9 million. And the reason for it not selling all this time and the dramatic cut in price? It’s haunted of course!
Let me say for the record, that if I were to win the Power Ball lottery, this is the house which I would buy to live in for the rest of my days on earth, and to haunt along with it’s present ghostly inhabitants after I die. With it’s 28 rooms of which 10 are bedrooms (and including 13 bathrooms), and standing on top of a 90 foot bluff overlooking Lake Michigan, I do believe that I could feel quite at home here, along with my cats of course. (Watch the video at the bottom of the page for a tour) ---
Construction of the mansion began in 1913 by John G. Shedd who was chairman of Marshall Field and given to his daughter Laura, who had married Charles H. Schweppe who was heir to the carbonated drink fortune. There’s was a good life, living a most grandeur life-style with grand parties and entertaining such likes as the Prince and Princess of Sweden and the Duke and Dutchess of Windsor. But the good times came to end in April of 1938, when Laura Schweppe died of a heart attack at the age of 58. She died with a net worth of 10 million dollars of which her two children, Jean Schweppe who’d been born in 1914 and Charles Shedd Schweppe in 1917. The remainder of her money went to her husband Charles.Following his wife’s death, Charles Schweppe became severely depressed and became convinced that the house he had lived in all those many years, was now haunted. Both his mental and physical state of health continued to decline until one day in 1941 the household staff discovered him lying in his bed with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. To this day, it is still a mystery as to his reason or reasons for committing suicide and the only clue was a note that he’d written before taking his life which lay on the bedside table: “I’ve been awake all night. It’s terrible.” Charles H. Schweppe was 60 years old.
After Schweppe’s death the Mansion remained lifeless and empty for 46 years. During that time, the Ghosts of Laura and Charles Schweppe were observed in many of the rooms, mainly in the bedrooms. There also have been sightings of what appear to be ghostly servants roaming the halls of the fabulous mansion, no doubt there to take care of the Master and Mistress of the house. The majority of these sightings came from staff and caretakers who continued to look after the house and keep it looking “lived in.” And there is the window. Yes, a window which remains sparkling clean while the others around it become dirty and grimy. There is no explaination for it. Or is there?
In 1987, a couple named Hoeper purchased the mansion for $5.5 million dollars and restored it quite beautifully. But the house once more came up for sale in 2009 with an asking price of $18 million. Two years later, the house went into foreclosure and the bank placed it on the market for $15 million. When it would not sell, the price was reduced to $12 million and then $11 million. Today, the house is move in ready for just the measely sum of 9.95 million dollars and although the grounds have been reduced to 5.3 acres and the area containing the pool was sold off, it’s well worth the price - If you don’t snatch it up, then when I win the lotto jackpot, I will - The Mansion's currently owners decline to say whether or not they've spotted or heard any paranormal activity within it's walls - I'm sure however that lurking somewhere about, the ghosts of the past are there, peaking out from behind the veil of death, watching and waiting --- Be sure to watch the video below!
Watch the video tour
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