‘Castle’ in Harvard to be sold at auction; suggested opening bid is $5.5m for 7-bedroom house

If Henri and June Giugni had lived in Florida or another southern state, they would have built a hacienda or a Spanish revival home to match the climate.

But, Henri Giugni said, his wife is from Illinois, and so was the business she built in Vernon Hills. So the couple purchased land outside of Harvard and built an English medieval manor house.

“We built this style of home because of the climate here,” Henri Giugni said. The masonry walls are two feet thick, keeping out the cold in the winter and the heat in summer. The couple started construction in about 1999, and finished it in 2005, he said.

Now, after almost 20 years in the 18,770-square-foot, seven bedroom, five-and-a-half-bath home, they are ready to move into something smaller. The Giugnis are working with Chicago-based Janice Corley of RE/MAX Collection Premier and property auctioneer Rick Levin & Associates, Inc., to sell the home and a portion of the acreage.

It is the unusual nature of the property that makes it a good candidate for auction, Levin said. “You come across this property and you realize there is nothing else like it. They call it a manor. I call it a castle – moat sold separately.”

The opening bid is set for $5.5 million, Levin said, adding that a realistic replacement cost for the home and grounds is closer to $15.5 million.

June, 82, and Henri, 69, met on vacation in Mexico and married in 1984. June already was running Cosmetíque Beauty Club, a “beauty of the month” direct retailer she founded a decade previously. At one point, the company had 150 employees and the couple traveled to Asia regularly to source their products, Henri Giugni said.

His interest in birds led him to traveling the globe, importing exotic birds until the bird flu epidemic shut down that business a few years ago. The couple own a house in the West African country of Senegal that was his base of operations there, and it also is for sale.

They lived in Lincolnwood after they married, but Henri Giugni, originally from southern Switzerland, missed the countryside he grew up in. They found an A-frame, chalet style house on the property off of Lincoln Road in McHenry County’s Hartland Township, and bought it for a weekend home in 1985 or 1986, he said.

Eventually, he suggested they move to the Harvard house permanently.

“She said, ‘Over my dead body,’” Henri Giugni said. But after a year, “she would never go back to the city, she loved it.”

Over the years Henri planted most of the trees that cover the former cornfield, and dug some of the streams by hand. The 18-acre lake was manmade – the dirt from it is now terraced southeast of the main house. The idea was to use the terraced hill for grapes, he said.

Construction of the manor started with finding an English architect who traveled back and forth between Illinois and England while the house was built. The limestone and wood came from quarries and trees in Indiana. Each of the eight fireplace surrounds were designed and built in France – several copying fireplaces in well-known homes there – and shipped to the U.S., where they were reassembled by artisans.

“This French carver ... had worked on chateaus in France, modeling fireplaces and sculptures,” Henri Giugni said.

Since the house was finished, he’s done most of the landscaping, mowing and upkeep outside. They closed down Cosmetíque five years ago, and June enjoys having small gatherings of her friends at the house.

“It is just too big for the two of us, so we want to downsize.”

—  Henri Giugni, owner of Somerset Manor

“We like to entertain people,” she said.

But the time has come for them to move to something without stairs.

“There are a lot of steps up and down, and I am afraid she is going to miss a step,” he said. “It is just too big for the two of us, so we want to downsize.”

The plan is to sell half the property – the house, the lake frontage, and the western acreage. Henri Giugni wants to build single-level home for the couple on the eastern half. That comes with the caveat that if a buyer wants the entire property, the couple could find another house to buy in the area, he said.

He could see someone interested in making the house a commercial venture – a wedding venue or a bed and breakfast. They even have a dome for the venue events. It was the aviary for his birds, repurposed to hold receptions.

The venue business is sidelined because they are looking to sell the manor, but in the meantime they’ve set up a website, castlepark.biz and opened up the ponds to anglers who can buy day or season passes to fish on the grounds.

Francesca Harris was taking advantage of the fishing recently. She set up on one of the ponds with her rod, reel, bait and a bucket – and her laptop.

“I work from home. Being outside helps me relax,” she said.

Who could a potential buyer be? Corley, the real estate agent, said she could see a corporation buying it as their company retreat, or a buyer who wants to be close to Lake Geneva without dealing with the traffic around the Wisconsin destination.

“A piece of real estate like this ... it is a work of art,” Levin said.

What to know about ‘castle’ auction

• The auction will take place Oct. 29.
• The suggested minimum bid is $5.5 million; replacement value has been placed at $15.5 million.
• The property will be available for viewing from noon to 2 p.m. Sept. 29 and Oct. 8, 17 and 24, and by appointment.
• For information, contact Rick Levin & Associates, Inc at 312-440-2000 or visit their website at ricklevin.com and click on “Auctions.”