LAKE FOREST, Ill. — Retired BNSF Railway CEO Robert D. Krebs and his wife Anne have donated their Lake Forest mansion, with an assessed value of $5.96 million, to Lake Forest College, the Chicago Tribune reports in a paywalled article.
The 9,217-square-foot Italian-villa mansion is on 2.6 acres of land on Walden Road in the upscale North Shore suburb, and features stone, terra cotta paving, and hand-carved walnut doors brought from Italy.
The gift will also preserve the Krebs’ Renaisasance art collection, Krebs told the Tribune. The mansion is about a mile from the college, where Krebs is a member of the board of trustees, and the intention was that the home would become a study location, the Krebs Center for the Humanities. That prompted concerns from neighbors about noise and traffic; the Krebs have proceeded with the donation but have not sought the special-use permit that would be needed to hold classes at the mansion.\
Lake Forest College, founded in 1857, is a private liberal arts college with a 107-acre campus about 30 miles north of downtown Chicago. Trains readers may know it as the home of the Center for Railroad Photography & Art’s annual Conversations weekend; the 2023 edition of Conversations is coming up April 14-16. Information on that event is available here.
The school would be better off selling the property. Building a student appropriate “study center” with the art displayed on a controlled floor. Making students come and go in this particular area is a non-starter.
I once had a friend who lived nearby and when a group of us helped them pack to move, we got challenged just for being in the neighborhood. No kidding.
While this is very generous of Mr Krebs, to think that the artwork can only be shown in his house and nowhere else is a bit inward.
I would assume Mr & Mrs Krebs would be leaving a sizable trust behind to keep the property maintained indefinitely.