Lakeside Legacy Foundation
Crystal Lake
One of Crystal Lake’s most significant historic structures is the C. S. Dole Mansion, an Italianate residence constructed in 1865 for Charles Sidney Dole, an influential grain baron and ice harvester. In 1922, Eliza Ringling of the famed circus family converted the building into the Crystal Lake Country Club. In 2002, its owner, a local church, listed the building and its 12-acre lakefront site for sale. Local preservationists responded with a grass-roots campaign that—in less than two months—raised most of the $1.6 million asking price, thereby heading off plans by a developer to convert the property to condominiums and townhouses.