It was designed by and built for Edward H. Bennett, who is best known as an urban planner and architect who worked in association with Daniel Burnham.

Bennett married Catherine Jones in 1913 and her father gave them a large parcel of land in Lake Forest at the corner of Deerpath and Green Bay Road.

It was modeled after its namesake French country house, Le Chateau de Bagatelle.

The studio was designed in the Streamline Moderne style; this was probably due to Bennett's connection with the 1933 Century of Progress.

[2] Bennett retired in 1944 and spent the next ten years at his houses in Lake Forest, North Carolina, and New Mexico.