Ten Chimneys

The story

Written by AI from this property's National Register nomination and the record above; every sentence is checked against its sources before it appears here. Corrections: privacy@treealive.com

Ten Chimneys is an estate in the Town of Genesee, Waukesha County, begun in 1914 in a style the nomination places among the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Revivals. It was listed in the National Register and designated a National Historic Landmark in 2003.

Why it's listed

It was listed under criteria B and C, with national-level significance in performing arts and architecture. Its period of significance runs from 1922, when Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne married, to 1948, when the estate's creamery and greenhouse were completed.

Physical character

The main house has a rambling L-shaped plan, with walls of weatherboard, stucco and log on stone and brick foundations under a standing seam metal roof. Other buildings have multi-paned casement windows under decorative hoods, board and batten siding and large tapered posts, and interior walls are painted and decorated.

Historical context

Lunt bought the property in 1913, and after he and Fontanne married in 1922, it was their home and, until 1977, a hub of American theater's cultural life. The 1930s brought extensive changes to the main house, accounting for most of the alterations made across the estate, and by 1942 the farm kept four cows, several pigs and up to 200 chickens.