Showhouse for a Cure

This is the 23rd (almost annual--it was cancelled the past two years due to covid) Cancer Showhouse. Designers are invited to style all the rooms inside, and then it's opened to the public for tours for two weeks. All the money from the ticket sales goes for cancer research. This gorgeous Tudor-style Mansion sits on a high bluff overlooking Lake Michigan, & the grand 25,553 square foot home was originally designed with 14 bedrooms, 9 bathrooms and 10 fireplaces for Myron T. Maclaren & his wife, Gertrude, as a wedding gift from Gertrude's father. {what a dad!} Gertrude & her father traveled to Europe several times during the construction (from 1920 until 1923) to buy decorative elements from estates and castles in England, Scotland & France for inclusion in the house. It later became a woman's dormitory, {in early 1960, Eleanor Roosevelt spent the night there while at UWM delivering a speech on women's rights}, & most recently was the UWM (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) Alumni House. Now it's back to it's beginning, a private home purchased by a local man who is a well-known for his charitable contributions to various organizations in the city. The inside was fantastic, with beautiful stone & woodwork through out, a gorgeous grand staircase, arched solid wood doors, fantastic chandeliers, and a view of Lake Michigan from every room that faces East.  When the house was built in the 1920's, they also put in an outdoor swimming pool, which at the time was the largest pool in Wisconsin. Over the years, it was a pool for the students who lived there when it was a dormitory, then it was filled with soil for 67 years, its outline just visible, and now it's been re-done as a fountain.{extra}. The rest of the grounds surrounding the fountain are under reconstruction. After the tour, my friend & I went for lunch, where we sat & talked for about 3 1/2 hours. {the restaurant wasn't very busy or we'd have left sooner}. But we still left our waiter a big tip because we sat there so long and he was so attentive.   :)