BARRINGTON HILLS

Railroad and gentleman farms

Starting about 1900, business executives from Chicago, many of whom were tied to the railroad industry, purchased the rolling farms and subdivided them into large summer estates. One such individual was Spencer C. Otis Sr., who by 1910 is credited with purchasing 1,000 acres (405 ha) of farmland along what was then Goose Lake Road but is now known as Otis Road and creating Hawthorne Farm. Otis was a "gentleman farmer" of the era. He worked in Chicago commerce, but his hobby was dairy farming on his large country estate which was led by his son Spencer Otis Jr. who attended agricultural school at the University of Illinois in Urbana. At this time the university was experimenting building round barns, of which became an Otis signature, as there were three built on the Hawthorne Farm. Several of Otis Senior's business associates, including George E. Van Hagen, also built large estates in the area and ran their summer homes as year-round dairy farms.

Barrington Hills Country Club

In 1921, the Barrington Hills Country Club, with its eighteen-hole golf course, was established on 200 acres (81 ha) of unfarmable land between County Line Road, Oak Knoll Road, and Northwest Highway. The land was donated by three of the club's early founders: H. Stillson Hart, who owned the farmstead known as Hart Hills just to the east of the club; George E. Van Hagen of Wakefield Farm, who owned the land just to the west of the club; and J.R. Cardwell, whose Oak Knoll Farm swelled along the winding Oak Knoll Road on the club's northern end. Van Hagen became the club's first president. Noted Chicago architect Robert Work, who was associated with David Adler, designed the first clubhouse, which was opened in 1926 and burned to the ground in 1930. Work designed the second clubhouse as well, which opened in 1931 and still stands.