For the Chicago elites who owned homes there, Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, provided a respite from the harried lives they experienced in the city. Especially after the Great Fire of 1871, so many well-to-do Chicagoans began building magnificent homes along the lake that Lake Geneva came to be known as "The Newport of the West." Not even families bearing names like Seipp, Bartlett, Allerton, Swift, Ward, Pinkerton, Smyth, and Leiter could avoid the contentious issues of the day as this Tribune article from May 1903 attests.

Creator: Chicago Tribune
Source: Chicago Historical Society (ICHi-38023)