In the first decade of the 1900s, Jonathan Ogden Armour acquired the 1200-acre property then called Mellody Farm. When Mr. Armour bought Mellody Farm, his wife, Lolita Sheldon Armour, was visiting in Vienna, so the purchase of the land and planning of the 29,000 square foot Italianate mansion were arranged as a surprise for her.

At the time, much of the area of the present lakes and nearby woods was low, swampy ground. They obtained the services of Arthur Heun and started building in 1904. It took four years to complete the building. Under the direction of the famous architect, the ground on which the mansion was built was filled and raised and the lakes now known as Eagle and Willow were created from the resulting earth-cutting and drainage. They were reputed to have spent a total of $10 million on the entire project: approximately $8 million on buildings and $2 million on landscaping by noted landscape architect Jens Jensen. A private railroad siding was built so that freight cars could bring in the huge marble slabs, the bronze stair railings, and the hand-carved panels.

The house was completed in 1908. The family moved in on May 5, 1908, and lived there until approximately September 1927. Many of the house’s mantle pieces, including 15 fireplaces and the paneling of the library reading room, which the family used as a living room, were imported from Paris, Vienna and London. It is also reputed that the marble staircase was built with the primary purpose in mind that their daughter, Lolita Ogden Armour, would descend the curving stairway on her wedding day, which she did in 1921, when she married John J. Mitchell, Jr.

Learn more about The Armour House here.