The Archive
The photographs, maps, patent and the complete 1891 title abstract behind this history. Every image opens full-screen with zoom.
Read the title abstract
Twenty-three printed pages and a certification, photographed in 2026. Use the arrows, the slider or the thumbnails; click the page to zoom. Each page carries a plain-English summary of its entries and a link to the full transcription.
Also transcribed: Abstract of Title No. 5482 for the neighbouring north-west shore. The certificate of No. 1715 refers to 108 preceding sheets, which does not match the visible pagination; it may reflect a condensed or copied abstract. The abstract summarizes recorded instruments; the original deed books control.
Two abstracts, word for word
Typeset transcriptions that follow the originals page by page. Every abstract citation on this site opens the transcription at the cited page.
Examination of Title No. 1715
The Fox lands in Sections 17, 18 and 20 — 76 entries from the 1841 federal entries through Starr's sale to I. Willard Fox, the family mortgages, the tax titles and Goodwin v. Fox to the absolute foreclosure of 1891. Pages 1–23 and the certification; the photographs are in the reader above.
Read the transcription →Abstract of Title No. 5482
Neighbouring land on the north-west shore: Seth Paine's 1841 entries, his 1849 “universal brotherhood” community deed and 1853 family trust, the sale to John Robertson, Robertson's estate and partition, Lydia Hicks's sale to John Koffen, and Koffen's 1910 subdivision and traction right-of-way. Its continuation also copies the Clarks' 1891 quitclaim to Kate W. Goodwin.
Read the transcription →Page 17 of No. 5482 (the middle of the 1868 Paine decree) was photographed and transcribed on October 5, 2026. Still missing: page 7 of the continuation, likely the John Koffen Subdivision plat — requested from the Ela Historical Society. Original deed books control over both abstracts.
Photographs, maps & plates
The Nestlerest house
Undated. Cataloged as “prior to being named Nestlerest Park.” Ela Historical Society Photograph Collection (p142), digitized by Ela Area Public Library. [S49]
Nestlerest on Lake Zurich
C. R. Childs, Chicago. Dunn Museum object m86.1.571; catalogue date associated with 1913. Illinois Digital Archives. [S48]
Nestlerest Park grounds
Riders, swings and a slide in the wooded grounds. Undated; does not establish a decade or operator. Ela Historical Society (p141). [S50]
Hale & Truesdell, Lake County
Detail: I. W. Fox on the south shore of Lake Zurich between J. C. Whitney and Jno. Robertson. Library of Congress. [S68]
Ela Township, Illustrated Atlas of Lake County
H. R. Page & Co. With research annotations marking Section 20 and the Goodwin footprint. Library of Congress. [S8, S36]
Reconstruction of Kate W. Goodwin's Subdivision
An earlier working reconstruction on the 1885 atlas. Not a recorded survey.
Goodwin footprint and 1885 house symbol
Later annotated overlay. “Final” was a working filename, not a certification of accuracy.
Detail: house symbol in the Goodwin strip
A house symbol inside an approximate strip does not alone establish identity with the surviving residence.
Gas-generator, sheet 1
U.S. Patent No. 125,888, I. W. Fox & D. H. Irland. Signed “I. Willard Fox.” [N1]
Gas-generator, sheet 2
Sections of the retort, purifier and gas holder. [N1]
Specification
“Isaac W. Fox and David H. Irland, of Chicago, Illinois.” [N1]
Claims
The specification concluded, with the inventors' claims and witnesses. [N1]
“Autos — Nestlerest”
Undated view of the drive with a sign reading AUTOS / NESTLEREST, probably 1910s–1920s. Ties the name to this house. Ela Historical Society. [S88]
“Built 1865 – E.R. Clark – then Fox House”
Print from Richard Barrie, apparently the same image as the Ela “prior to Nestlerest Park” view. Its later caption combines mistakes and potential leads: E. R. Clark is not in the chain of title. Ela Historical Society. [S89]
Home of Richard Barrie, 1981
Winter view down the drive. The typed ownership caption is a later annotation — a combination of map-label mistakes and leads, including a 1915 “Est of Joseph Whitney.” Ela Historical Society. [S87]
For sale at “Nestlerest”
A generated restoration of Mrs. Frank Clark's 1900 advertisement — not an unaltered scan. The newspaper controls the text. [S16]
Examination of Title No. 1715, page 1
Caption and the first federal entries of 1841. [B1]
Page 9: Starr to I. Willard Fox, 1857
Entries 42–43. [A1 / B9]
Page 10: mortgages and the school acre
Entries 44–48. [A2 / B10]
Page 23: foreclosure made absolute
May 16, 1891. [B23]
Certification
Waukegan Abstract Co., D. L. Jones, manager, September 16, 1891. [B24]
Adding contemporary photographs
Place your own photographs of the house and shore in images/contemporary/ and list them in NR.CONTEMPORARY at the end of js/data.js; they will appear here under “Contemporary.” Still sought: full-resolution scans and backs of the Dunn and Ela photographs, the 2009 architectural photographs, the Lake Zurich Queen material, and aerials from the 1930s on.