His company was successful, and Felt also served in a number of prominent positions in government and business groups.

[2] In 1927, the Felts hired the Grand Rapids architectural firm of Frank P. Allen & Son to design this summer house.

Dorr Felt remarried the next year, but his new wife preferred living in Chicago to the summer estate.

The mansion was left to his children, who kept it until 1949, when it was sold to the Chicago Province of the Augustinian Order of the Catholic Church.

The northern portion of the house contained the dining room with a kitchen and pantry, a small library, and a sun porch.

A central staircase leads to the second floor, the south side held family rooms, including a master suite with a bedroom, an anteroom with a walk-in cedar closet, a sun porch, and a tiled bathroom.

Additional bedrooms for children and guests take up most of the remaining space, and the north side had sleeping quarters for servants.

[2] According to local urban legend, the forest around the Felt Mansion is a place where melon heads lived.