A little history about this house Posted Monday, October 27, 2003 - Pat Gerlach Schaumburg officials often speculate that the house they call the Kern-Schmidt mansion may have been designed by prominent 20th century architect Paul Schweikher. Most likely it was not. For many reasons. Actually, there are no records documenting Schweikher's connection to the house built in 1930. And because Schweikher was a Modernist, it would have been unusual for him to have created a strictly neoclassic residence. According to early records, the 8,000-square-foot residence was built in 1930 for a man named M.A. Kern by Emil Sporleder, a well-known master carpenter who had gained acclaim for his hand-wrought moldings and cabinetry. At the time, Sporleder worked as a general contractor, employing two to three men. Sporleder later moved his business to Mount Prospect. Kern was an official at a Chicago insurance company and, with his brother, L.D. Kern, owned the Lexington Saddle Farm on property east of Meacham Road between Higgins and Schaumburg roads, which they purchased from dairy farmer John Kastning. The Kerns raised thoroughbred horses and raced them at Arlington Park. Reportedly neither of the Kerns ever used their common names - Maurice and Lowell - even in casual conversation. The huge Kern house was centered on the farm and the area was eventually developed as the Lexington Fields subdivision, which offered large lots for luxury custom-built country homes, none of which were ever attributed to Paul Schweikher. However, in 1938, Paul Schweikher built his own post-Prairie-style home and studio several miles south of the Kern property. A Colorado native, Schweikher came to Chicago in 1923 to study architecture and apprenticed with David Adler whom he credited with instilling his accurate sense of proportion and design. Schweikher died at the age of 94 in Phoenix, Ariz., in 1997. His local residence is Schaumburg's only building listed on the National Historic Record. Schweikher left the area in 1953 when he was named chairman of Yale University's school of architecture and later went on to head the architecture department at Carnegie Mellon University. It was about the same time that M.A. Kern died and his elegant home lay vacant for several years until it was purchased in the late '50s by Otis Schmidt, owner of nearby Schmidt Iron Works. The house remained in the hands of the Schmidt family until the early '90s when it and some of the surrounding property was purchased by a developer and lay vacant for seven years. In 1999, it was sold at auction to Marty and Laura Nevel - the third family to occupy the 73-year-old house. - Pat Gerlach