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Cuneo Museum and Gardens Review

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Cuneo Museum and Gardens

  • Address: 1350 N. Milwaukee Ave., 15 mi west of Lake Forest, 40 mi northwest of downtown Chicago, Chicago, IL | Map It
  • Phone: 847/362-3042
  • www.cuneomuseum.org

Fodor's Review:

Samuel Insull, partner of Thomas Edison and founder of Commonwealth Edison, built the mansion at the Cuneo Museum and Gardens in 1916 as a country home. After Insull lost his fortune, John Cuneo Sr., the printing press magnate, bought the estate and fashioned it into something far more spectacular. The sky-lighted great hall in the main house resembles the open central courtyard of an Italian palazzo; the private family chapel has stained-glass windows; and a gilded grand piano graces the ballroom. The house is filled with antiques, porcelains, 17th-century Flemish tapestries, and Italian paintings. The gardens appeared in the film My Best Friend's Wedding.

To get to Cuneo by car (about a 45-minute drive from downtown Chicago), take Interstate 94 West to IL Route 60 West. Turn right (north) onto IL Route 21 (Milwaukee Avenue). It's half a mile to the entrance. To get here by train, take Metra's Milwaukee District North Line from Union Station to Libertyville. Hail a cab to the mansion; it's about 5 mi from the station to Cuneo.

  • Cost: $5 per car; $12 per person for mansion tours
  • Open: Tues.-Sun. 10-5; beginning in mid-May, guided mansion tours are Tues.-Sat. at 11, 1, and 3, self-guided on Sun.
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