Take a Cruise to the Victorian Summer Retreat of a Chicago Beer Baron
Black Point Estate was built for Chicago Beer Baron, Conrad Seipp, in 1888 as a retreat, and in that spirit the home remains a place to relax, refresh, and explore. Just like the Victorian VIPs who established the estate, you’ll arrive in style and enjoy stunning Geneva Lake views on your cruise to this magnificent summer home, considered one of the finest examples of period architecture and furniture in the Midwest, and one of the oldest homes in Lake Geneva.
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Black Point Estate and Gardens
Step into Gilded Age elegance at the 1888 Summer home of Chicago beer baron, Conrad Seipp. Guests enjoy a narrated boat ride to the property via the Lake Geneva Cruise Line, a guided tour of the mansion, & time to relax and sip Seipp beer on the veranda.
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 Delavan School for the Deaf.
Ebenezer Chesebro moved his family to Delavan in 1839 with a deaf daughter, Ariadna, who had been attending a deaf school in New York. The Chesebros hired Wealthy Hawes to teach their daughter and a neighbor boy who was also deaf.
Hawes, who lived nearby, was hard of hearing, and a graduate of the New York Institute.
In 1851 John A Milles, also an NYI graduate replaced Hawes. The school had grown to 8 children.
In 1852 they petitioned the Wisconsin legislature to establish a school for the deaf. Franklin K. Phoenix, a neighbor and close friend of the Chesebros offered to donate land for the school.
The school has operated continuously since its founding in 1852, and since 1939 as a bureau of the state Department of Public Instruction.
Enrollment at the school averages about 130 students per year.
Walworth@250 #83
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My great grandparents moved to Delavan so that my great aunt could go to school there. They had a farm that was north of the Dells. My grandma graduated high school in Delavan in 1911. After my great aunt Veda graduated from school at the WI School for the Deaf, my great grandparents and Aunt Veda moved back up to the farm, but my grandma had married and started a family in Delavan. My dad, Wally Plewe, and my grandma started a restaurant in Delavan called Eat’n Time.
My mother graduated from the deaf school 1950 something. She grew up in the city of Walworth. My grandpa lived almost right downtown but in his backyard he raised fighting Cox and that’s how he made a living.
Joe and I worked at the school in the early 70's. He was a houseparent and I was a teacher's aide for multiply-handicapped kids. It was a great experience. We have always loved knowing sign language.
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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 Driehaus Family Fountain.
The fountain outside the Riviera was donated to the City of Lake Geneva by Richard Driehaus—who owned Wadsworth Hall on the North Shore.
The fountain is a smaller replica of a fountain at Bethesda Terrace in New York’s Central Park where the original commemorates New York’s first (1837) fresh water aqueduct—the Croton River Aqueduct bringing fresh water to Manhattan.
At the top of the Fountain is the sculpture Angel of the Waters. The four figures below represent Peace, Health, Purity and Temperance.
Richard was an avid preservationist, and restored Wadsworth Hall in 1998 over 16 months, with up to 160 workers on site seven days a week.
Walworth@250 #82
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Had many interesting conversations with him over the years I worked there.
It's sad to me that he is gone..
The city council wanted it placed by City Hall and Driehaus told them it was either going in front of the Riviera or it was going on his property ...that ended that.