The home and island are both called Comfort Island. It was built for Alson E. Clark, a wealthy Chicago paint manufacturer, in 1883 and has remained in the Clark family ever since. Alson paid $1,100 for the two-acre island and another $12,000 to build the Victorian-style home. Extraordinarily high ceilings kept the house cool in the summer. Water was pumped from the river to the home’s water tank by a windmill.
The home passed down through the Clark family, including Alson S. Clark who became a well-known impressionist landscape painter in the 1920s and ’30s. His work can be seen on several of the walls in the house.
This home was recently featured in the Top 10 Island Homes For Sale.