Places
Homes Past
12319 Lake Shore Boulevard "Harrywold"
Plat No. 631-08-005
Sublots 39 and 40 in the Gilbert, Coe and Shipherd Subdivision
Oliver Payne and his father, U.S. Senator Henry B. Payne, acquired the property from Samuel and Gertrude Coe on June 18, 1874.
Charles and Mollie Bingham, who resided at 707 Euclid, changing to 2157 Euclid Avenue, were likely the first Euclid Avenue Millionaires’ Row family to establish a summer retreat in Collinwood. On June 15, 1888, Mollie’s bachelor brother, Colonel Oliver Hazard Payne, presented his sister with 15.719 acres of lakefront immediately east of Nine Mile Creek that they had acquired as a duck hunting preserve. The extensive grounds make the home seem almost isolated. A small wooded gully had a winding drive that repeatedly crossed a little creek and rustic bridges.
The Binghams retained Peabody & Stearns of Boston, who designed their Euclid Avenue home, to create a 35-room Elizabethan style country cottage based on sixteenth-century English squire homes, large enough to accommodate their four children, a German nanny and an assembly of dogs.
The architectural firm of Peabody and Stearns, based in Boston, Massachusetts, was active from 1870 until 1917. the firm consisted of Robert Swain Peabody and John Goddard Stearns, Jr. They worked on in a variety of designs but were closely associated with shingle style.
Over one thousand commissions for buildings of every type passed over their drafting tables, qualifying them as one of the most prolific architectural firms of the period. One might reasonably ask how this firm that was so well recognized in their own time is so little known today.
Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that compared with their more celebrated contemporaries, Peabody and Stearns designed a limited number of significant public buildings. Of the forty or so libraries, museums, town halls, hotels, and banks that they did complete, relatively few remain standing. Many of the firm’s innovative or influential commercial buildings have been demolished or altered beyond recognition.
The reputation and enduring value of Peabody and Stearns rest on the large number of residential designs completed in the forty-five years of their active involvement in the architectural firm, as well as on the firm’s role as a training ground for young draftsmen and architects. Perhaps the partners’ legacy lies as much in the building of the next generation of architects as it does on bricks and mortar of Boston’s Back Bay.
The Bingham home featured exposed end chimneys, enlarged Flemish gables, and arched door and window openings. There was a fireplace in every room. The estate had a swimming pool, greenhouse, stables, and an interconnecting bridle path connecting with Samuel Mather’s Shoreby.
Following the death of Charles, the estate passed to the children, Elizabeth Blossom, Francis Payne Bolton, Henry Bingham, and William Bingham, on May 10, 1929. The estate sat empty for a few years.
Payne Bingham Co. acquired the property on February 27, 1931. The home eventually burned to the ground in 1932, leaving nineteen chimneys standing. The land remained unused for many years under the care of William and Anna Hawkins, the superintendents.
Shorelyn Realty Inc. acquired the property on August 1, 1948.
Doctors Clinic Foundation acquired the property on April 18, 1960.
John David and Robert Renner acquired the property on December 15, 1961.
Walter Oschek acquired the property on April 22, 1969.
Dale Winston acquired the property on June 16, 1981.
Southside Acreage Ltd. acquired 8-plus acres for Colony, a development of 19 lakeside homes.
