| Additional Information: | 2021 -
The Lake Geneva Youth Camp is a summer church camp on a 40-acre site on the south side of South Street between Lake Shore Drive and Wilmot Boulevard. The land and several of the camp buildings were once part of the Ceylon Court Estate on Geneva Lake, west of Lake Shore Drive. Planning for the estate began in 1893 after Frank Chandler, a wealthy real estate mogul, purchased the Ceylon Court
building from the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The building was disassembled, shipped to Chandler’s property in Lake Geneva, and reassembled (1). In 1901, the estate was sold to John J. Mitchell, president of the Illinois Merchants Bank. Mitchell subsequently
purchased farmland along South Street and started a hobby farm that would eventually be known for its pedigreed pigs, cows, and horses. After Mitchell’s death in 1925, the estate changed owners a few times before becoming vacant
in the mid-1940s(2)
The farmland was purchased in 1948 by a group of Chicago businessmen that included Charles Pollard, who was the son of a former Ceylon Court farm manager. The group purchased the land for $100,000 and began work on their vision for the property, a Christian youth camp. When the camp opened for its inaugural season in 1950, renovated chicken coops served as lodging, dining, and worship spaces (3).
As of 2021, the Lake Geneva Youth Camp has over 30 buildings that serve thousands of campers each year. The oldest building on the property is AHI #67618. Known as “Under the Maples,” it is a two-story building constructed in 1894 with later alterations giving it a Prairie-style appearance. It originally served as the summer home for the Chandler family.4 The building, which is now used for lodging, has a low-pitched roof with wide, overhanging eaves, a central cupola, replacement windows, and replacement siding with decorative contrasting half-timbering emphasizing the horizonal lines of the building.
Several other buildings date from between 1901 and 1928, when John Mitchell operated the farm. AHI #67620 is a two-story Tudor Revival-style building used for lodging. It has a multi-gabled roof with asphalt shingles, is clad in stucco and decorative half-timbering, and has wood windows covered by metal storm windows |
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| Bibliographic References: | 2021
(1) John Halverson, “Bringing an Amazing House Back to Life,” The Lake Geneva Regional News and Resorter, May 12, 2011.
(2) “Fabulous Singhalese Temple Estate Preceded Youth Camp and Park,” The Lake Geneva Regional News, June 6, 1974.
(3) “Youth Camp Asks Public to 25th Birthday Party,” The Lake Geneva Regional News, June 6, 1970.
(4) Rose Cour, “Internationally Famous Singhalese Temple Undesecrated by Time,” The Lake Geneva Regional News, May 4, 1939. |
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