History

Robert Henry Allerton (1873-1964) was born in Chicago on March 20, 1873, the only son of wealthy Chicagoan Samuel Waters Allerton (1828-1914) and Pamilla Thompson Allerton (1840-1880), and younger brother of Kate Rennett Allerton. He grew up on Chicago’s prestigious Prairie Avenue, and received his early education at preparatory academies in the city as well as in New England.

In 1893, Robert and childhood friend Frederic Clay Bartlett (heir to what eventually became True Value Hardware) attended the World’s Columbian Exposition, only blocks away from their homes near the Chicago lakefront. Of particular interest to them was the Palace of Fine Arts where many of their own family friends, including the Potter Palmers, exhibited their prized art collections. Amateur artists themselves, they decided to forego following their fathers into the family businesses, and instead dedicate their lives to the pursuit of art.

“To think that men could conceive such things, and actually bring them into being on a flat bare canvas: Could create illusions of space, perspective, sunlight or storm, all on a piece of cloth with colors taken from dark mines or pungent earth, applied by means of bristles taken from a pig’s back fastened to a little stick.” — Frederic Clay Barlett 

For five years, Robert studied painting, drawing, and sculpture at Munich’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts, still one of Germany’s most prestigious art schools, as well as academies in Paris. In 1897, when he was 24, Robert dramatically burned all his paintings and declared himself a failed artist. He decided to return to the United States to manage a portion of his family’s agricultural holdings, specifically, the operation of 12,000 acres in Monticello, Illinois, purchased during the late 1800s by Robert’s father, Samuel.

Samuel’s long-held advice to city boys was to:

“…get in touch with a farm somewhere; while you work it, your good returns will not only be coming in, but you will be laying up health, vitality and character, which are always welcomed by metropolitan enterprises.”

Part of the agreement to manage the Piatt County property included funding for Robert to build a house of his choosing. After serving as best man in Frederic’s New York wedding in October 1898, Robert again traveled to Europe (a week-long trip across the ocean) with architect friend John J. Borie III searching for inspiration for his farm house. 

They found inspiration in the Ham House, on the banks of the River Thames in Surrey, England, and arrived back in Monticello by mid-April 1899 ready to begin construction. Although the house interior would not be complete until a few years later, Robert moved in. 

Robert continued to be passionate about art, and spent decades shaping the Illinois farmland to create ever-evolving landscapes that captured the natural beauty of the land. He traveled extensively in winter and became an avid art collector, bringing home pieces from around the world to display in his outdoor gallery or to donate.

“One of the enjoyable things about being a farmer is that much of the work can be done in the summer, and the winter can be devoted to travel.” — Robert, written

Throughout his life, Robert donated over 6,600 pieces to the Art Institute of Chicago, and became an honorary president and trustee there; the main building still bears his name. 

In addition, Robert gifted community buildings, led forest preservation efforts, established charitable trusts, and funded local scholarships. Through his gifts, countless people have been able to share in his passion. Robert is remembered as a kind and sensitive man who always sought the personal element in every interaction.

Robert’s Piatt County estate and surrounding farmland was known as “The Farms,” and was a state-of-the-art model of production farming that attracted experts from around the world to study its techniques.

Robert thoroughly enjoyed hosting visitors at The Farms.. His parents, Sam and Agnes, visited often enough to have a bedroom kept especially for them (Room #7), but mostly guests arrived from Chicago. They included composers, painters, sculptors, journalists, and other people associated with the cultural pursuits he enjoyed. Great thinkers, creators, and artists found inspiration at Allerton, 

One of Robert’s more prolific guests was Glyn Warren Philpot who, during a 1913 visit, sculpted Primitive Man, made a sketch of Robert as a faun, and painted a portrait of him which he called The Man In Black. It now hangs in London’s Tate Gallery. On a return visit in 1921, Philpot’s companion, Vivian Forbes, sketched Robert in charcoal.

Robert kept guest books in which he noted visitors, art collections, changes to his gardens, and other ephemera. Robert collected costumes from his trips around the world and brought them back, storing them in wooden closets that lined the small conservatory found at the other end of the hallway near the Carriage House. His friends would then decide which costume to change into for relaxation upon arriving to The Farms.

Today, our staff carries on the legacy of using Allerton for inspiration and creativity through The Farms: An Allerton Folk School. As the first folk school in Illinois, The Farms offers community-based education focused on art, outdoor education, science, storytelling, and wellness. 

Our staff remains committed to utilizing this unique cultural space to inspire creation, connection, and appreciation for the arts and our natural world.

In 1922, Robert’s young second cousin Asler Dighton introduced him to his roommate, John Gregg, and the two quickly became companions. After graduating from the University of Illinois, Gregg took a job in the architecture firm of David Adler, an acquaintance of Robert’s. John and Robert’s relationship strengthened, and when the firm closed, John began living at “The Farms.” He helped design the Gardens and assisted with farm management, and the two formed a loving and devoted relationship that would last for 42 years—the rest of Robert’s life. 

“We got together and lived happily ever after.”  — John Gregg Allerton

Within a couple years of meeting Robert and John had begun to refer to each other publicly as adoptive father and son. They were two men who wanted to spend their lives together, yet they lived in a society that condemned homosexuality. Robert also wanted to ensure that John would be welcomed as a part of his family wherever they went together. Becoming father and son achieved this goal. 

In 1960, a year after Illinois enacted a law that allowed adults to adopt adults,  Robert solidified the relationship by legally adopting John. After Robert’s death in 1964, John officially took the Allerton name.

During a stopover on the Hawaiian Islands in 1938, Robert and John purchased 100 acres of beach-front property on the island of Kauai, and “Lawai-Kai” became their winter home (now part of the National Tropical Botanical Garden). After a few years, managing The Farms from Kauai became a challenge, especially as Robert and John — and the staff in Monticello — were aging.

Robert officially gifted the house and grounds, plus an additional 3,600 acres of farmland, to the University of Illinois on October 24, 1946. The deed of gift stated that the property “be used by the University as an education and research center, as a forest and wild-life and plant-life reserve, as an example of landscape gardening, and as a public park.” At that time, it constituted the most generous gift extended to the University. (Robert also designated an adjacent 250 acres of land within the estate’s boundaries to establish the Illinois 4-H Memorial Camp.)

Robert and John remained interested in the caretaking of their former home, visiting Monticello annually until the early 1960s. After Robert’s death at Lawai-Kai on December 22, 1964, John continued to visit until his death in 1986.

After the gift was made, staff at the University of Illinois studied the estate and its potential. Initial work was started to create infrastructure for a public park, including trailhead parking lots, restroom facilities, and public roads. The main house began conversion into a more usable education center by converting large rooms (originally staff quarters) into smaller rooms with private bathrooms, and creating dining room space and kitchen facilities. In the early 1950s, the University added an additional parking lot and the Evergreen Lodge to accommodate more conference guests. 

Throughout the 1950s, the University started utilizing the Park for research, specifically in the Natural Areas. (Find more about ongoing research.) During the 50s and 60s many structures fell into disrepair and were either demolished or damaged by fire. Two of the more well-known structures that were removed were the Lost Garden Tea House and the South Tower, both of which defined the outmost boundaries of the Park, and raised security and liability issues.

In 1962 the Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Congress authorized the Oakley Reservoir on the Sangamon River downstream from Allerton. This proposed dam project would have flooded hundreds of acres of the Park’s bottomlands. Led by local couple Bruce and Patricia Hannon, the Committee on Allerton Park (COAP) was established as a 501c3 non-profit organization dedicated to “save Allerton Park” by stopping the dam.

The Committee’s petition drive collected almost 100,000 signatures and helped bring awareness to the proposed project. The group was finally able to halt the dam’s appropriation progress in 1975, and deauthorize it at the federal level in late 1985. The COAP eventually became the Champaign-based non-profit Prairie Rivers Network, which continues to protect clean water and restore rivers throughout the state of Illinois.

In the ’80s and ’90s Allerton saw some ups and downs. The Lost Garden was dismantled and permanently closed to the public, the statues being moved to the North side of the Park where they would endure less vandalism. The Fu Dogs were removed from their pedestals for the same reason, but were later able to be returned to their original places. The Mansion, while still used for educational events, began to show its age and funds for renovations and updating were difficult to procure. The Gatehouse and House in the Woods were renovated to provide additional lodging spaces, and public events like the Holiday Showcase were created. With the help of federal grants, pathways were established throughout the formal gardens to meet the American Disabilities Act (ADA).

Following this short period of development, in 2001 the main bridge between the North and South sections of Allerton across the Sangamon River was closed based on state safety regulations. This historic one-lane bridge was a significant physical connection to the local community, and the lack of funds to repair the bridge was devastating to the recent growth.

For the second time in Allerton’s public history, a community group stepped in. Allerton advocates began increasing in number, and with them, the public enthusiasm for Allerton. The community was making this place into their passion. Public events were initiated, relationships with campus and the local community were re-established, decades of deferred-maintenance were repaired, and many improvements were made to facilities, gardens, and the use of Allerton. Though Park staff and funding were cut significantly in the Great Recession of 2008, the expanded use of Allerton helped sustain some momentum. With help from the local community, Allerton was able to re-open the main bridge in 2012 – the beginning of another great decade at Allerton.

Around this time, new Park leadership made the conscious decision to become a more open and accessible public and University resource. Outdoor concerts were reinstated, followed by additional community events. The Mansion was utilized not only for educational purposes, but recreational events like weddings and public gatherings. A renewed focus on improving the grounds and facilities was made possible by deferred maintenance loans from the University, along with an increased focus on individual support through donations. Overall, a renewed interest in attracting the public to appreciate and help sustain Allerton was established.

In 2015, the University of Illinois Board of Trustees approved the Allerton Park Master Plan, which inspires a vision for conservation, appreciation, engagement, and development of Allerton’s physical property. Find more information about the future of Allerton here.

Today, Allerton Park and Retreat Center is a treasure to anyone who discovers and experiences it.

One of the most common questions asked about Robert is: “Where did he get his money?” Robert accomplished what so many people have done for centuries—he inherited well!

His father, Samuel Waters Allerton (1828-1914), was born in New York, the ninth and last child in a poor family. By the 1850s, Samuel had traveled to central Illinois while trading livestock. In 1858 he met a young woman from Canton, Illinois – Pamilla Wigdon Thompson (1840-1880). They married in 1860 when she was 20 and he was 32.

In 1863, after having borrowed money to buy up almost every hog in Chicago to sell to the Union Army, Samuel found himself on the road to riches. That same year, Pamilla gave birth to their first child, Katherine (Kate) Reinette Allerton. On March 20, 1873, their only son, Robert Henry Allerton, was born.

During the ten years between his children’s births, Sam plunged even deeper into the livestock industry and also added banking to his list of ventures. While amassing a total of 78,000 acres of land between New Jersey and Nebraska, he helped organize the Chicago Union Stockyards and the First National Bank of Chicago (now known as Chase Bank).

In 1880, the children and Pamilla were stricken with scarlet fever. Pamilla died and the children’s hearing was severely impaired until the age of hearing aids.

Three years later, in 1883, Sam married Pamilla’s youngest sister, Agnes (1858-1924). The 30-year age difference may not have been a problem for Sam or Agnes, but Kate was only three years younger than her aunt and was never able to refer to her as “mother.” For Robert, however, Agnes was a stalwart friend and stepmother who instilled in him a love of gardening, music, literature, and the visual arts.

As much a philanthropist as Sam was a businessman, Agnes followed through on Sam’s 1895 proposal to Monticello Township that, if they would construct a suitable building for a town hall and library, his wife would help outfit it. After Agnes donated furnishings and 2,500 books to the new library in 1897, the building was named in honor of her.

At the time of his death on February 22, 1914, Sam still occupied a seat on the board of directors of the First National Bank of Chicago. A portrait of Sam, painted in 1901 by Ellen Emmet Rand, once graced the walls of the First National Bank, and currently hangs in a position of honor over the fireplace in the Mansion’s Grand Gallery.

The Allertons are said to be descended from Isaac Allerton, a wealthy member of the Mayflower pilgrims. Isaac was later kicked out of Plymouth Plantation for money misdeeds. Details on their genealogy can be found in Sam’s updated publication of A History of the Allerton Family in the United States 1585-1885, originally written by Walter S. Allerton.

In 1879, Sam Allerton, by then an important Chicago tycoon, purchased a grand Italianate mansion on Chicago’s south side at 1936 Prairie Avenue, where all the millionaires were making their homes at the time. The street was nicknamed “Millionaires’ Row” and “The Sunny Street that Held the Sifted Few” by many. Neighbors and friends included the families of merchant Marshall Field, engineer and industrialist George Pullman, meatpacker Philip Armour, and hardware manufacturer Adolphus Bartlett.

The largest lot on the street, the property was one of the first houses on the street that cost at least $100,000 (in 2010 funds, approximately $2.25 million). The property, complete with a 72-foot tower, also contained an enviable two-story barn and stable, along with a tower on both the house and the stable. Third richest man in Chicago, according to theChicago Tribune, Sam Allerton was known for keeping a wonderful stable full of horses and carriages. Up the street from them lived the family of Marshall Field, the richest man in Chicago according to the Chicago Tribune. Mrs. Field’s famous January 1, 1886 New Year’s party for 400 of their neighbors and her children’s favorite friends cost her approximately $75,000, the equivalent of $1.6 million in 2009 purchasing power.

In 1893, Sam ran for mayor of Chicago and came in a close second with 45% of the votes. Three years later, newly-elected President McKinley asked if he’d serve as Secretary of Agriculture, but he turned down the offer due to this age.

The Allerton’s house was torn down in 1915, after Sam’s death, to make way for the Hump Hairpin Factory. At that point, the address changed to 1918 Prairie Avenue. Because of the care given to Sam by a local doctor, Robert took the proceeds from the sale of the property and created the Dr. Howard R. Chislett Trust Fund, benefiting the doctor himself as well as Chicago’s Passavant (now Northwestern) Hospital. Condos now occupy the Allerton’s lots.

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Toward the end of the 1880s, many Chicago millionaires wanted a summer home away from the city noise and dirt. They usually bought or built homes around Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Sam Allerton was no different. In 1883, he purchased – for $15,000 – a 26-acre property along the lake, complete with an eight-sided fishing lodge. His wife, Agnes, called it “The Folly,” and thus forevermore, the family continued to use that nickname when referring to their home.

When Sam bought the “The Folly,” he wanted to enlarge it, but it would have meant cutting down a favorite tree of his. Rather than do that, he first had the house moved and then enlarged. Later Sam purchased an extra 80 acres near the house for a vegetable and flower garden. Agnes won prizes for her flowers and instilled in Robert a love for nature.