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 Lucius Newberry
The second of Geneva’s large passenger excursion boats, the Lucius Newberry offered trips around the lake for 50 cents and sailed from 1875 to 1891.
From this announcement: “The elegant “Lucius Newberry” is now running her daily morning afternoon trips from Geneva Village to Fontana…stopping at the various delightful parks about the lake and affording an excellent opportunity to enjoy the matchless scenery and give ample time for a picnic and ramble in the woods from any of the parks, before the return trip.
The Lucius Newberry is a large side wheel steamer, 115 feet long, 31 feet mid-ship, three decks, a 125 horsepower engine, a gorgeous cabin, filled with master paintings of scenes from the lake and shore and capable of carrying 1,000 persons and is one of the handsomest and safest vessels west of the Atlantic.”
The Newberry had separate “wash closets” for men and women, an upright piano, room for a full band and a 41x21 foot dance platform with a Georgian Pine floor.
It competed for passengers with the earlier side wheel double decked Lady of the Lake, which sailed from 1873 to 1893.
Walworth@250 #86
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December 11th 1891 the Luscious Newberry caught fire and was set adrift while ablaze from the municipal pier in L.G. She drifted until burning to the waterline off of what's now Geneva Bay Estates. Divers found it and some artifacts (boiler, rudder, bottles) on July 1st 1981. The rudder was recently taken down entering into L.G. across from Wells Street.
Another good photo. 👍
WOw!
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 Butternuts.
Butternuts was built (and rebuilt after a fire) for Nathaniel Kellogg Fairbank and his family between 1874 and 1875 on 20 acres. Located on the north shore, the estate was built in a field of oats…with a small grove of butternut trees nearby. It stood until 1957.
The house had 18 rooms, among them 12 bedrooms, a library, a music room, and a dining room that could seat up to 50 guests. Along with the rooms more commonly found in a Gilded Age home, Butternuts also had a chapel on the third story, complete with an altar and pews.
The site of Lake Geneva’s very first game of golf was on the grounds of Butternuts. Fairbank was a lover of golf and helped to found the Lake Geneva Country Club.
He was also the first commodore of the Lake Geneva Yacht Club. With Levi Leiter he stocked Geneva Lake over the years with several million lake trout, bass and white fish. He won a Guernsey competition at the World’s Columbia Exposition in 1893.
Fairbank manufactured soap and animal products in conjunction with the major meat packing firms in Chicago. One successful product was his Gold Dust Washing Powder.
Walworth@250 #85
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Another LG connection to the World’s Columbia Exhibition, cool!
This was where Geneva Bay Estates is now. Pretty sure it was torn down in 1957, not 1975. That’s about when GBE came into being
Such an amazing place!
2 cement benches remain on grounds tennis court & pier area, a 3rd bench on my great uncles property pier68 was removed on sale in 1999 to PIKEWOOD pier 162 and erected at far west edge of 181 foot lot to view lake ,we left it there when sold property 2011 after family resided since 1946.
Love the history. Thank you!
Where was this estate?
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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 Pishcotauqua Resort
Pishcotaqua can be translated to “Sparkling Waters.”
Built seven years earlier than the (similar and more famous and still existing) Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island in upper Michigan, this resort in Williams Bay had a dining room that seated 300 and 1/3 of a mile of verandas on a 16 acre campus with a bowling alley, shooting galleries, playgrounds, and mineral springs.
Opened as a Temperance hotel in 1880, it was not very successful (surprised?) After four different owners were unsuccessful, it was purchased in 1890 by John Cooke, a beer brewer from Chicago, he improved the hotel and renamed it the Cooke’s Park Villa Hotel but was set back by a fire.
Undeterred, he rebuilt and reopened in 1891 only to experience another fire on Christmas, 1892. He turned the billiard hall into his private residence (still standing) and became a gentleman farmer.
His property is now Chapel on the Hill (Highway 50 west of Lake Geneva), Knollwood and Ara Glen subdivisions.
Walworth@250 #84
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I’m searching for any history/photographs of this part of the lake. I love/have this photo. Would love others to decorate my house.
I LOVE these history facts!! Will you continue thru the whole year?