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SATURDAY NOVEMBER 30 | SUNDAY DECEMBER 1 2019
SUNDAY BREAKFAST
SPORTS
Devon Bruce of Lake Forest invites readers inside Metra’s Car 553. P22
Medley Madness: New Trier quartet zips to record at state swimming and diving meet. P20
SOCIAL SCENE
Wells Fargo Private Bank host women’s leadership forum. P14 FOLLOW US:
NO. 372 | A JWC MEDIA PUBLICATION
NEWS
Celebration of Giving A WINNETKA COUPLE IS PROUD TO CO-CHAIR CATHOLIC CHARITIES 30TH ANNUAL SPIRIT OF ST. NICHOLAS BALL NEXT WEEKEND. BY ALEXA BURNELL THE NORTH SHORE WEEKEND
Judy Castellini of Winnetka has dedicated her life to giving back and making a difference in her community. She has poured her heart and soul into her volunteer commitments to such nonprofits as the Ravinia Woman’s Board, Woodlands Academy, St. Josephinum Academy, and Hadley School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. So when she and husband Jerry Castellini were asked to cochair Catholic Charities 30th annual Spirit of St. Nicholas Ball on Friday, December 6, she was thrilled to take the lead. “The St. Nick Ball is not only the kick-off event for the Christmas season, but also a unique gathering of so many generous donors. Over the past 30 years, these donors have dedicated countless resources towards supporting the vital work the Catholic Charities provides for thousands of children in need throughout the Chicago area,” she says. “The Ball is also special in that it a multi-generational event, including many famiContinued on PG 10
GATSBY REVIVAL
JEANETTE AND DANNY HODGKINSON RESCUE AN ICONIC LAKE FOREST MANSION FROM THE WRECKING BALL. BY SHERRY THOMAS THE NORTH SHORE WEEKEND
In a letter that F. Scott Fitzgerald sent to his daughter in 1940, the author famously wrote, “Once I thought that Lake Forest was the most glamorous place in the world. Maybe it was.” The longing in that sentence is palpable. Not for the city as much as a big white mansion on South Ridge Road and the socialite who lived there more than a century ago. The influence that Ginevra King (member of an exclusive sorority in Lake Forest self-dubbed “The Big Four”) had on Fitzgerald’s work is well documented, most notably in the character of The Great Gatsby’s Daisy Buchanan. His time spent in Lake Forest and at that house (with its immaculate English gardens) shaped the writer he would become and many of the works he would contribute to the American literary canon. Stepping into that home about 100 years later—a Howard Van Doren Shaw classic that came very close to being demolished after sitting empty for a decade—evokes a similar kind of longing. With boarded up windows, peeling paint, and all the fallout that comes from years of neglect, the elegant mansion where the King family wowed the young Fitzgerald had been frozen in time, just waiting for a new heroine to step in and recognize its significance to not only Lake Forest history but to American literature. That unlikely heroine was Jeanette Hodgkinson. Her crew (and devoted husband and business partner Danny Hodgkinson) call her Patrona. The Hodgkinsons purchased what is better known around town as “the Gatsby house” last year with a vision to restore the sprawling property to the height of its glamorous heyday. “We are discovering how well this house was built and it is very obvious Charles G. King spared no expense and cared very deeply for his home,” says Jeanette, who grew up in Woodstock assisting her father with construction projects—acquiring a wealth of firsthand experience. “We are treating the renovation the way he treated the original build, with great care and attention to detail.” She and Danny, a former state’s attorney in Waukegan who grew up down the road from this house when he was a boy, already had a business fixing up houses and reselling them. “My background could not have been more different from Jeanette’s. I was more inclined to call someone like Jeanette’s Continued on PG 10 Danny and Jeanette Hodgkinson PHOTOGRAPHY BY FRANK ISHMAN
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