I’ve given you a little background on the setting for Viv and Charlie #3, DIG DEEP MY GRAVE, in April’s newsletter, but I thought it was time I introduced you to the inspiration for Oakhaven – Viv’s family’s summer cottage on Geneva Lake*.
Black Point Estate is a 13-bedroom, 1 bath (!) Queen Anne-style “cottage” built by beer baron Conrad Seipp in 1888. It’s considered a cottage because there is no insulation or heating system. It’s uninhabitable in winter even today. Conrad died only two years after the cottage’s completion but his descendants continued to inhabit the house until the late 1990s when it was gifted to the State of Wisconsin - and when it was gifted, it came “as is” with all of the furniture, light fixtures, etc… still in it. Grandma’s medicine cabinet was even fully stocked (they had to legally remove the laudanum before the tours started coming through). Some of the furniture is pre-Civil War. (That furniture is in the summer cottage, because it was considered The Seipp family’s second-best furniture. The Seipps also had a mansion in Chicago built at the same time where they lived year-round, and where I presume, the very best furniture held pride of place.) You can only visit Black Point by a special tour boat that runs twice daily in the summer. One caveat if you plan to visit: It’s high on a bluff and you have to hike up 120 steps to reach it.
Some first floor photos. I would kill for that veranda
(I may not be joking - I do write murder mysteries.)
Second floor photos
This is the view from the second floor balcony (They weren't keen on having a clear view of the lake, I guess. I believe it was Conrad's son or grandson that planted all of those trees that block the view.)
Anyone want to slip into this black wool boy’s bathing suit circa 1920s/30s and go for a dip? No?
Lake Geneva’s heyday as "The Newport of the West" was from 1880 – 1920, but there were still many large estates around the lake in 1939 (when DDMG is set). After WWII the huge estates began to be sold off and broken up into smaller parcels. Most of the beautiful old houses were torn down. I read somewhere that in 1900 there were 30 estates around the lake (which is 7 miles wide) and now there are more than 1,000 homes occupying that same space.
None of the boathouses below belong to Black Point, but they are all on Geneva Lake and they did inspire the one at the fictional Oakhaven where a lot of the story’s action takes place.
Below is an original steam yacht – the kind that Viv’s grandfather would have taken when he departed The Milllionaires’ Special in Williams Bay and headed to Oakhaven across the lake. This yacht is from 1898 and was owned by Otto Young, the original builder of Stone Manor. It’s now owned by the Geneva Lake Cruise Line.
By the way, in October, you can visit Black Point and hear a retired mortician discuss Victorian funeral customs and early embalming techniques. Of course, I’ve attended (and I blogged about it - if you're not too squeamish).
*the lake is called Geneva Lake, the town is called Lake Geneva…
