F. S. Peabody named his highest-grade coal after his champion horse Great Heart, who set the high jumping world record at eight feet and three inches in 1923. Great Heart coal was used on Admiral Richard E. Byrd's 1939 expedition to the South Pole.
Mayslake Hall was built in 1921 as the retirement home for Francis Stuyvesant Peabody of Peabody Coal, one of the nation’s largest coal producers. Its architect, Benjamin Marshall, was acclaimed for his historical revival designs, and Mayslake Hall is an outstanding example of Tudor Revival architecture. It now serves as an education and cultural center for the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County.
F. S. Peabody named his highest-grade coal after his champion horse Great Heart, who set the high jumping world record at eight feet and three inches in 1923. Great Heart coal was used on Admiral Richard E. Byrd's 1939 expedition to the South Pole.
Behind a panel in Mayslake Hall's upstairs library, a secret staircase winds down one floor to a study. Behind a liquor cabinet doing double duty as a door, it then leads to the basement, which is home to a Turkish steam bath and a room for men to enjoy smoking, games, and a drink.
After F. S. Peabody’s death, the next occupant of Mayslake Hall was the Order of the Franciscans Minor. For 76 years the friars used the house and grounds as a retreat center, during which time they hosted more than 250,000 people on weekend retreats.
Legend has it that Mr. Peabody is buried in a glass casket, with his ghost roaming Mayslake’s grounds. He and his son were indeed buried at the estate, though they are now at Queen of Heaven Cemetery in Hinsdale. The glass casket idea might come from St. Innocentius, a martyr child once displayed in a glass casket at Mayslake by the Franciscans.
The exceptionally large fireplace in the Mayslake Hall library is surrounded by carvings of gargoyles, a bagpiper, and a flutist. Having made his fortune in coal, F. S. Peabody proudly installed a coal-burning fireplace, often considered inferior, in his office on the first floor. Amazingly, not one of the nine fireplaces in the house was ever used.
Together with Alberta Potter Palmer, May Henderson Peabody hosted a fundraiser at Mrs. Palmer’s house to raise funds for the Children’s Building at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. Later her son, Stuyvesant ‘Jack’ Peabody, headed the $5 Campaign, an effort to raise funds for the 1933 Century of Progress Exposition.
Mayslake Hall is a house under restoration. Its room-by-room approach gives visitors a view of the fascinating process in action, while telling the story of the life of a building, its role in history, and its connection to the community.
Wide, tall chimneys are one of the identifying features of Tudor Revival-style architecture. Mayslake’s terracotta chimney pots are decorated with a fleur-de-lis, rope, and Tudor rose motif. The chimney pots above the servant quarters are unadorned, one of the ways architectural design reflects the occupants’ hierarchy within.
F. S. Peabody possessed an extensive library. After his death it was dispersed among his heirs and partly sold. A Mayslake volunteer, working in a second-hand bookstore, came across four books, all inscribed to "F. S Peabody" by his father for Christmas of 1896. They now are back at Mayslake Hall.
The 87-acre Mayslake Forest Preserve is home to five different ecosystems: a high-quality restored prairie; an oak savannah, one of the most endangered ecosystems in Illinois; a marsh; a wetland; and two lakes.