Horizon Farm in Barrington Hills, Explored Before the Mansion Came Down

Horizon Farm in Barrington Hills, Illinois was a 400 acre horse farm, and the house on it was one of the best abandoned mansions in Illinois. The description says it was untouched by thieves and vandals. We got in shortly before the mansion came down. The video description says it was demolished a couple of days before the upload.

The one thing that made the video is that it’s the last look at a house that no longer exists. Near the end I included a demolition photo, along with pictures of the pool room, the hot tub next to it and the entertainment center in the living room.

What we found

We started at the guest house. The trees around it had been cleared, and I said I was guessing they were getting ready to tear everything down. It was a nice house, and inside it looked like someone had been painting. Upstairs there were bedrooms with cute beds and a cute little bathroom. On a counter sat a jewelry box with jewelry still in it, and a horse pendant nearby. I told the person with me that this was probably the best place I’d been, and they agreed.

There were photos everywhere, a lot of people in them, and a window where the neighbors could see us, so we were careful around it. The guest house basement had golf clubs, puzzles, a baby bed, croquet, more baby stuff and an old washer and dryer.

The mansion was alarmed. A panel in the bedroom said alarmed, and I figured out it was a door alarm and not a motion alarm. There were no cameras that I saw. We talked about the bypass and the code. I pointed out that we hadn’t broken anything.

Inside, the place was still furnished. Champagne was left on the bar, there was a jacuzzi in the corner, a smaller hot tub and a pool room. Auction numbers were stuck on a lot of the furniture. In a walk in closet was the famous safe. Someone had found a Spanish coin and gold jewelry in it, and the owners had locked the code inside and hidden the key. A set of keys sat nearby. I didn’t try them, since we weren’t going to open it anyway. It’s still a good story.

Two details made me think someone was still looking after it. There were antifreeze bottles at the sinks, so the pipes would survive winter, and there were construction lights in the windows on timers that came on at night. I said they were definitely trying to sell it. That was a guess.

The basement was the opposite. Black mold, water leaking down, and a moldy child’s bed. Someone said to try not to breathe, and we went back up.

The stables were where the farm showed. Each stall had a card with a name. Chloe got the best hay, one was Cowboy, one was Vanessa. We found a worker’s office, boots, and wallpaper I liked a lot. One door had a lock on the outside, and we left that one alone. Outside, a house up there was already gone, another one was gone too, and a barn full of hay was still there. They were actively demolishing the place.

The last stop was the old racetrack. A checkered column marks the finish line, and the track is big. I wanted to thank the horses and the riders for the memories at the place.

Why Horizon Farm is abandoned

The video description tells the early story. William and Jane McGinley owned the farm, bred and boarded horses, and had three of the state’s top stallions. William died in 2001 and Jane in 2003, and the family sold in 2006 to the Cannons. The description says they paid $20 million with a $14.5 million loan and then defaulted. I couldn’t confirm the 2006 sale price in sources I opened, so treat that part as the description’s account.

The rest is on the record. The Forest Preserves of Cook County bought the nearly 400 acre estate out of foreclosure. The Daily Herald reported the price as $14.5 million. Its stories differ on the year, 2013 in one and May 2014 in another. The Cannons sued, arguing the district lacked standing, and a state appellate court upheld the lower court’s ruling for the district in May 2015. The district opened about four miles of trails that June. That September a Cook County judge ordered the site closed after a lawsuit over a lease the Cannons had with Royalty Farms LLC, and in March 2016 a judge lifted the access restrictions. By February 2019 The Real Deal was calling it a decade long fight with six lawsuits. Chronicle Media reports the district gained full possession in 2019 and has demolished more than 20 buildings that were past their useful life.

What happens next

The district held a public open house on June 14, 2022 and said it wants to restore natural areas for native grassland birds, with future uses still being planned. The northern 40 percent opened in November 2021, and the rest opened fully with a December 30 opening, with equestrian use allowed. A maintenance garage, a barn at the main parking lot and a small corn crib are what’s left standing.