About this record
Frances Kinsley Hutchinson and her husband Charles, a prominent member of Chicago's business and civic community (he served as President of The Art Institute of Chicago from 1888-1924), built their country home in Lake Geneva in 1901. Frances Hutchinson named the estate Wychwood in reference to the "wych-hazel" that grew in many places on the grounds. The Hutchinsons developed many of the acres of woods into a wildlife sanctuary that attracted more than sixty species of birds. Mrs. Hutchinson wrote three books on Wychwood-- Our Country Home was the first, published in 1907, and is the only one with photographs of the estate. After the Hutchinsons' death, the estate was given to the University of Chicago for use as an experimental and research station for students, although it was maintained as a refuge for native plants and birds.Citation
Hutchinson, Frances Kinsley. Our Country Home: how we transformed a Wisconsin woodland. (Chicago: A.C. McClurg and Co., 1907); online facsimile at http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/search.asp?id=1063