How the Peabody mansion restoration is unfolding in Oak Brook

Chicago industrialist Francis Stuyvesant Peabody planned to retire as a gentleman farmer on a grand country estate.

It took more than two years to build a home that would suit his elite lifestyle and, some might say, eccentric tastes. Resembling an old English manor, the 39-room Peabody mansion had secret stairs, a Turkish steam bath, heavily carved woodwork and an overall air of opulence.

Peabody’s retirement, however, was short-lived. The Yale-educated coal baron had barely settled into his stone-gated retreat when he died of a suspected heart attack during a fox hunt in 1922.

A century after his death, Mayslake Hall is undergoing a $6.4 million exterior restoration.

“We want to make it look aesthetically very pleasing and time-period appropriate, but we’re also using modern materials that are going to be more efficient and longer lasting,” DuPage County Forest Preserve President Daniel Hebreard said.

The Tudor Revival-style Mayslake Hall earned a spot on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994, shortly after the forest preserve district acquired the property in Oak Brook. The mansion stands as one of the area’s last vestiges of estate farming, but the ravages of age and nature have taken a toll on the edifice.

“We were starting to see some water infiltration,” Hebreard said.

As part of the project, crews are meticulously restoring the masonry, repairing limestone and replacing aluminum windows and tiles on the slate roof.

“We are currently in the selection process to get the right color and texture and thickness of those slates to match the historic building,” said Ryan Pavlik, a project manager at R.M. Chin & Associates.

In 2021, the asphalt was replaced in the west parking lot. Last fall, a new storm sewer system was installed to improve drainage around the perimeter of the building.

Ultimately, the project will ensure the entire exterior, including windows and doorways, will be “sealed watertight” to control humidity, keep out pests and help prevent further deterioration of the structure, said Kevin Horsfall, manager of the district’s planning department.

“Really, the goal was to make sure that we don’t have to do this for a long, long, long, long time,” Hebreard said.

A ‘cornerstone’

With his wealth, Peabody gradually bought some 850 acres from what is now Ogden Avenue north to 31st Street for his estate. It was of similar size to Mellody Farm, built in Lake Forest for meatpacking heir J. Ogden Armour.

For his country house, Peabody commissioned architect Benjamin Howard Marshall, who designed a Chicago landmark: the Drake Hotel.

Under construction from 1919 to 1921, Peabody’s mansion was an architectural jewel with marble flooring, a hand-carved solid walnut staircase and a coat of arms above the main entryway. The hidden stairs were in Peabody’s oak-paneled office.

After Peabody’s death in 1922, his family sold the estate to a Franciscan order that converted the mansion into a religious retreat house.

Through the years, the Franciscans sold off sections of the estate. In 1992, voters agreed to a $17.5 million tax increase to allow the forest preserve district to buy the remaining 88 acres and prevent the loss of open space.

The district uses the property as an education and cultural center, providing space for exhibits, adult-education classes, tours, theatrical productions and private rentals.

“It’s become a cornerstone in that community in Oak Brook and really all of DuPage,” Hebreard said. “And we want to make sure their visitor experience is excellent.”

What’s ahead

Enveloped in scaffolding, the mansion has been closed for repairs since last May. The district received a $750,000 museum capital grant from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to help pay for the restoration work. In addition, private donors in 2022 and this year have contributed $64,100 toward the project. Most of the restoration efforts were funded by a district bond sale.

The project is about halfway complete, Horsfall said.

“All the major work is going to wrap up by July and then we are anticipating final completion in August,” he said.

Officials already are planning for new programming and to fill a prominent void. Founded 26 years ago, the Joseph Jefferson Award-winning First Folio Theatre is ceasing operations at the Mayslake Peabody Estate after its current production “And Neither Have I Wings to Fly” closes at the end of the month. First Folio Executive Director David Rice is retiring.

“We’re really excited to bring art, history and nature together at that location,” Hebreard said. “We’re definitely going to see more indoor-outdoor combinations of programs.”

There also may be a partial reopening of the estate to let the public see the final stages of the restoration.

“We have a lot of committed volunteers and supporters and others in the community who are absolutely ambassadors,” Hebreard said. “I think they’re going to be really proud of the project in the end.”

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