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.
Our next Movie Monday with the Lake Geneva Public Library is scheduled for March 2nd at 2PM.
We will be screening the 1973 classic, Paper Moon. Black Point Director, Dave Desimone will provide an introduction to the film prior to screening.
Due to construction at the library this event will be at City Hall.
As always, this event is free and open to all.
We hope to see you at the movies. ... See MoreSee Less
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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 Joy Rasin.
Joy was born on March 5, 1937, in Chicago. She spent her childhood in Chicago and Lake Geneva. In her early twenties, Joy moved to New York City, where she worked for the Bermuda Tourist Board and then NBC television.
In the 1960s and 70s, Joy worked for State Representative Giddy Dyer, one of Illinois' groundbreaking woman politicians. It was during those hard-fought campaigns, played out against the historic divisions of the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War, that Joy learned the tough lessons of local and national politics.
Joy served as a Trustee of the Hinsdale, Illinois Village Board, where she chaired several committees. She also sat on the Board of Trustees of Elmhurst College; in recognition of her many contributions there, she received their Founder's Medal in 1998.
Joy was deeply involved with numerous organizations including the Garden Clubs of Hinsdale and Lake Geneva; with Black Point Estate and Gardens, and Horticultural Hall and with various nature conservancies.
Joy and her husband Rudy were excellent stewards of their longtime home in Lake Geneva, "Flowerside." Its extensive gardens, designed by Joy over the course of 45 years, were recognized and archived by the Smithsonian Institution in 2002.
Upon Rudy's death in 2014, after 55 years of marriage, Joy endowed the Rudolph S. Rasin Center for Global Justice at Westover in his honor. The Rasin Center has become an exemplar of its kind, and a pillar of the school's community.
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She was an amazing lady !
She was very nice. She commissioned me to do artwork of her home, Flowerside.
She was a wonderful person.
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 Loramoor.
Loramoor was a Tudor Revival style home built for James Moore in 1900. It was named for his wife, Lora, and was enjoyed by the family until his death.
The home was constructed in a V shape so that the lake could be seen from every room in the house. It had three floors and 27 rooms including a bowling alley and a wine cellar.
The property was also extensive, consisting of 32 different outbuildings including an icehouse, a boathouse, several barns and stables as well as various houses for animals.
After his death, the house was purchased by a group of Franciscan friars who turned the estate into a friary before it was razed in the 1980s, leaving only a few of the outbuildings standing, which are now private residencies.
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Map of Loramoor buildings
Wow, just to see it today. I bet it was amazing!
The greenhouse was visible from South Shore - near the low wall that I hopped to take a few pictures. I was approached by one of the friars who offered to give me a tour of the grounds and the house. There was a rather large woodpile along the woodland trail - one of the friars chopped wood as a form of meditation. The home was very sparsley furnished but the interior wood workmanship was beautiful. A sweet memory of this friar's kindness. In the 70s it was always nice to see the friars on their park benches along the Shore Path.
You are a wealth of information. Thanks for sharing.
Isn’t there a novel surrounding this home, a world’s fair, written by a man from Elgin?
Moore owned Diamond Match. He even had a full race horse track across South Shore Drive. My wife lived in the Loramoor coachmans house for a few years. When they went to raze the main house they thought it would take a week. It took a couple of months. They had a bulldozer parked on the main floor taking it down because it was all steel beams and brick.
In the early 1980's I sang with a community choir and orchestra in the gymnasium, which was part of an addition to the mansion by the Friars that included a dormitory. I only got to see the mansion's main entrance area, which had been preserved by the Friars. There are several buildings that were original to the estate that still exist along Hwy B just west of the curve intersection with Hwy 120. The gatehouse, the stables, which the Friars turned into a world class library, the laundry building, the chicken coop, and the cattle barn, all now residences. The tell-tale structural sign of a Laramore building was the rounded over roof edges. At the peak of its existence with the Moores, there was a full horse racing track in the space between current Hwy B and Hwy 120. The most obvious remains of the estate is the red brick wall that runs along the road.
I remember being told there were elevators for the horses in the stables and that Gene Autry had once bid for the property.
Were the stables across the road from Loramoor - Loramoor on the lake side of the road?
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