The arrival hall at Ten Chimneys is just a glimpse into the many rooms at the famous estate. Tours are offered May through mid-November, Tuesday through Saturday. Tours leave every 15 minutes and start times generally range from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Reservations are strongly recommended. Full-estate tours take two hours and cost $35 per person. The Main House tour takes only 90 minutes and costs $28 per person. There’s a reduced rate for groups of 25 or more for the full-estate tour. Call (262) 968-4110 to book a tour. To learn more about the estate, turn to page 62.

Ads tout it. We all strive for it. But the husband and wife acting team of Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne actually achieved the good life in their summer home located at Genesee Depot. Visitors can take an up-close and personal tour of the Lunts’ estate, named Ten Chimneys, to see for themselves what drew some of the biggest names in American theater to vacation in southeastern Wisconsin. Helen Hayes, Noel Coward and Sir Laurence Olivier are just some of the stars of the stage who regularly rested and played at Ten Chimneys while the Lunts were in residence.

The famous couple moved into Ten Chimneys in 1922, where they lived during the summer. After 1923, they vacationed there regularly until their retirement in 1960 when they moved into the home full time. Lunt died in 1977 at age 84 and Fontanne passed away in 1983 at the age of 96.

Located in southern Waukesha County, and set into the rolling terrain of the Kettle Moraine, Ten Chimneys represents a return to a more genteel time, when dressing for dinner meant actually donning a tuxedo and a gown. Set on 60 acres, the Lunts’ estate features a three-story, 18-room Main House built in 1915, an 18th century Swedish log cabin utilized as a studio, and an eight-room cottage. There’s a pool and pool house, a creamery with an attached greenhouse, a barn, a stable and other outbuildings. The Lunts lived lush, but not lavish, when they were here.

What attracted the "aristocrats of the American stage" to the area? In a word, family. When Alfred Lunt, who grew up in Milwaukee, inherited a sum of money from his father, he used it to purchase land in Genesee Depot. Quite the Renaissance man, Lunt designed part of the green-shuttered Main House for his mother and half-sisters. Later, after marrying Fontanne, he completed the house and his mother and one half-sister moved to the red and white cottage that Lunt had converted from a chicken coop.

The Lunts very meticulously designed the entire estate, including the grounds and the landscapes, notes Sean Malone, president of the Ten Chimneys Foundation. Each room was carefully dressed as if it were a stage set. There’s no flaunting of ostentatious wealth here, nor is it stuffy. This is the home of a gentleman farmer and his wife.

Alfred Lunt and Lynne Fontanne moved into their estate during the 1920s.

Before the house was opened to the public in 2003, all of the furniture, books, window coverings and accessories were restored and set exactly where the Lunts had originally placed them. And yes, there are actually 10 chimneys on the estate.

But more than just a home, Ten Chimneys is a lifestyle. Taking a cue from a 1933 play Noel Coward wrote called "Design for Living," the Lunts consistently reflected their "high ideals of graciousness, lasting relationships and attention to detail" in their work and in their home.

Along with the estate, Ten Chimneys features a permanent exhibit space modeled on the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in New York City and a museum store that includes replicas of some of the Lunts’ home accessories. m