Tudor-style Mettawa mansion sells for $2.3M

A vintage four-bedroom, 7,000-square-foot Tudor-style mansion on 5 acres in Mettawa that was designed by noted architect Harrie T. Lindeberg sold in December for $2.3 million.

Built around 1920 for industrialist Charles Morse Sr. and known as Rimwold, the mansion is part of an estate that includes a renovated main house, a four-bedroom coach house, a pool house, an infinity pool with a waterfall and spa, a greenhouse, an orchard and a vegetable garden.

Based on the East Coast, Lindeberg, who died in 1959, specialized in designing country houses, including some homes on the North Shore. One notable design of his is the Tudor Revival-style Philip D. Armour house in Lake Bluff, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Mettawa estate is bordered by Lake County Forest Preserve District property on three sides, and privately conserved lands on the fourth.

“It is such a unique piece of property and it’s so private and yet it’s so close to things like shopping and (Lake Michigan),” listing agent Elizabeth Wieneke of Compass told Elite Street. “The house has nice architectural detail and a carriage house as well as a pool house. The sellers filled in the original pool, which was in front of the pool house, and the sellers then put it in the back so there was more privacy and it was overlooking this beautiful savanna.”

The mansion has six full bathrooms, three half bathrooms, five fireplaces, a paneled library, millwork, ceilings with hand-cut beams, a billiard room, a butler’s pantry, a great room with a large fireplace and a Christopher Peacock kitchen with high-end appliances and a large island. Other features include a primary bedroom suite with a fireplace, a second-floor cedar closet and a lower level with a wine cellar and recreation rooms.

Outside on the property are a brick driveway with a large motor court, a backup generator, a five-car attached garage and numerous patios and stone courtyards.

“It’s a very, very special home. It feels like you’re in a different world,” Wieneke said.

The estate’s longtime owners were American Hotel Register vice chairman Thomas F. Leahy, who died in 2018 at age 73, and his wife, Catherine. The couple paid $1.6 million for the estate in 2000.

Catherine Leahy first listed the property in October 2020 for $3.9 million. She reduced her asking price to $3.5 million in late 2021 and then to just below $3 million in May 2022.

The estate had a $52,142 property tax bill in the 2021 tax year.

Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.

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