Nestlerest
& Isaac Fox
A lakeshore house that outlasted a glassmaker's fortune, a case in the United States Supreme Court, a summer boarding house and half a century of company picnics. It still stands at 40 Mischa Court.
A house at the center of a changing lake
On the south shore of Lake Zurich, the building now known as 40 Mischa Court carries several histories at once. It is associated with the family of Isaac Willard Fox, whose business connected the lake to the glassworks of New York and the commercial streets of Chicago. It survived a family financial dispute that reached the United States Supreme Court.
It belongs, too, to the story of Flora and Frank Clark, summer boarders, ice harvesting, picnic crowds and the Lake Zurich Queen. Its modern address is the newest layer over a much older place.
This site gathers that history from court opinions, an 1891 title abstract, newspapers, maps, photographs and village records — and is careful to say where the evidence is firm and where it is still being sought.
One place, many layers
A document about the large farm does not automatically prove a fact about the park — or about the particular building that survives. The research keeps these layers apart.
Small source tags like
The Lake Zurich farm
Parts of Sections 17, 18 and 20, Township 43 North, Range 10 East — roughly 535 acres in the 1857 deed.
Goodwin's Subdivision
The west 10 chains 75 links of the SW¼ of the NW¼ of Section 20 — Kate W. Goodwin's lots.
Nestlerest Park
104 Robertson Avenue — summer cottage, picnic grove and amusement park, 1898–2004.
The surviving house
40 Mischa Court, Lake Zurich Oaks Lot 2 — a four-unit home, likely built as a single-family house before 1900.
Working parcel reference
PIN 14-20-106-025 — from property-data sources; verify with the county.
Six ways into the story
Isaac Willard Fox
Glass, commerce, an 1857 purchase, a gift of land for a school, and a patented gas generator.
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Debt & the Court
How a family business account put the farm before the Supreme Court — and what happened after.
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Nestlerest
From “The Hermit” to a picnic park with a showboat — and a house preserved.
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Timeline
Fifty-one dated events from 1821 to 2026, filterable by era, subject and strength of evidence.
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Map
The 1885 atlas laid over today's satellite view, with a guided tour of the south shore.
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Documents & images
Two title abstracts in full transcription, the 1891 abstract's photographs page by page, and the maps, plates and patent.
Explore →Its history connects an industrial family, a civic land gift, a widow and her children, village incorporation, ice production, summer boarding, company picnics, and a deliberate decision to preserve an old building.From the research synthesis, October 2026
The house from above
The former Nestlerest grounds are now Lake Zurich Oaks, an eight-lot subdivision on about 4.7 acres. The old house sits on Lot 2, a short walk from the shore it has faced for more than a century and a half.
Live satellite view. The dashed outline is a reconstruction of Kate W. Goodwin's Subdivision from its tax description — not a survey.