The David Adler Estate was the house and property of American architect David Adler in Libertyville, Illinois, United States. It is the house most closely associated with his life and career.
- Venue
- David Adler Estate
- Town
- Libertyville, US
The David Adler Estate was the house and property of American architect David Adler in Libertyville, Illinois, United States. It is the house most closely associated with his life and career. The house is now operated as the Adler Arts Center, which offers art and music classes, private lessons, camps, and exhibitions. David Adler was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1882 to wealthy clothier Isaac David Adler and Therese Hyman Adler. After graduating from Princeton University in 1904, he studied in Europe at the Technical University of Munich and École des Beaux-Arts. After completing his schooling in 1911, he moved to Chicago, Illinois to study under prominent country house architect Howard Van Doren Shaw. After six months, Adler opened his own architectural firm in partnership with Henry Dangler in Orchestra Hall. When David Adler married Katherine Keith in 1916, he decided that they should have a new house. The pair had been living in an apartment in Chicago near Adler's main offices. Over the next two years, Adler remodeled an 1864 farmhouse in Libertyville, and the couple moved in in 1918. Libertyville was close to Lake Bluff and Lake Forest, the location of many of his commissions. Although famed for his stately country houses, Adler decided to live in a more humble setting. However, the architectural themes that dominated Adler's country houses were present in the farmhouse remodel. The reformed farmhouse was an eclectic mix of styles, predominately Colonial Revival. Adler enclosed the southwest corner porch and connected to an addition that would become the living room. He added a room to the north that would be used as a dressing room and bath for his wife. Adler also extended the dining room in this direction with a projecting bay. He added a Neoclassical dining porch on the east which opened into the living room. At the same time as the initial remodel, Adler added a one-story servants' cottage. Adler also planned the landscape, designing a formal garden t