Stone Manor on Geneva Lake is owned primarily by Tina Trahan, wife of former Starz CEO Chris Albrecht, who bought six of the mansion’s seven condominium units for a reported $16 million in 2017. One unit remains independently owned. Since her purchase, Trahan has spent years reversing the building’s condominium conversion and working to restore the lakefront estate as a single-family home.
How Tina Trahan Assembled Her Ownership
Stone Manor had operated for decades as seven separate condominium units spread across the building’s three main floors. The layout included double units and single units on each level, with individual sale prices historically ranging from roughly $1.9 million to $6 million depending on size and floor. Trahan’s purchase of six of those units gave her control of almost the entire building, and she has been methodically undoing the subdivisions to return the property to something closer to its original form.
Each unit at Stone Manor carries its own fee simple title. Individual owners hold full legal ownership of their designated living space plus an undivided share of the common elements like hallways, the roof, and the grounds.1Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Statutes Chapter 703 – Condominiums That means Trahan did not buy “most of the building” in one transaction. She acquired six separate titles, each with its own share of the common areas, and each still legally distinct even as she renovates the interior as one home.
Why One Unit Still Matters
Because a single unit remains independently owned, the Stone Manor Condominium Association still exists. Wisconsin’s Condominium Ownership Act requires a condominium declaration and plat to be recorded with the county register of deeds, and that legal structure stays in place until every unit is reunified under one owner or the declaration is formally withdrawn.1Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Statutes Chapter 703 – Condominiums As long as one independent unit remains, the association continues to govern shared maintenance obligations like the exterior stonework and grounds, and it continues to levy assessments on unit owners to cover the considerable cost of maintaining a limestone building well over a century old.
Luxury condominium associations also frequently include a right of first refusal in their bylaws, giving the association or other owners the option to match any outside purchase offer before a sale goes through. If and when the final unit changes hands, that mechanism is one path to Trahan completing the reunification she started in 2017.
Who Owned Stone Manor Before
The property was built by Chicago wholesale jeweler Otto Young, who commissioned the Lake Geneva estate in 1899. Construction took roughly three years. Young had made his fortune through Otto Young & Co., a wholesale jewelry firm he founded in 1872, and he was also a bank director and one of the largest private holders of real estate in the Chicago Loop. The National Park Service nomination form describes the building as a fireproof structure of white Bedford stone, steel, hollow tile, and concrete, measuring 70 feet wide by 174 feet deep.2National Park Service. National Register of Historic Places Inventory – Nomination Form – Younglands With multiple stories, estimates of total living space range from 30,000 to over 40,000 square feet, making it the largest mansion ever built on Geneva Lake.
Young died on November 30, 1906. The property, originally called Younglands, remained in the family for decades afterward as a seasonal retreat. At some point in the mid-twentieth century, the estate was turned over to a religious order and operated as St. Anne’s, a girls’ school. A comment from a former resident places students there in the early 1940s. The school eventually closed as heating costs for the enormous stone building proved unsustainable.
From roughly 1950 to 1970, the manor sat largely neglected. Various developers floated ideas for commercial reuse, but local zoning complications and the sheer expense of maintaining the building stalled most plans. The eventual conversion into luxury condominiums gave the property a viable financial future by splitting maintenance costs among several wealthy owners. That arrangement held for decades until Trahan began reassembling the units in 2017.
The estate was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in September 1979. The exterior limestone facade and surrounding landscape are heavily protected from alterations, meaning owners cannot make visible changes to the building’s shell without review. Interior modifications face fewer restrictions, which is how the condominium conversion was possible in the first place and how Trahan has been able to renovate inside while preserving the historic exterior.
How to Verify Current Ownership Yourself
Anyone can look up the current owner of a Stone Manor unit through Walworth County’s public records systems. The property sits at 880 South Lake Shore Drive in Lake Geneva.3Gygax Memorial Fund, Inc. 34 – Gary and Gail Gygax’s Home (Stone Manor) Because the building contains multiple condominium units, each unit has its own parcel identification number assigned by Walworth County. You need that number, or at least the street address, to pull the right records.
The county maintains two relevant online tools. The Walworth County Parcel Information Inquiry lets you search by parcel number or tax key to view assessment data and tax information.4Walworth County Government. Walworth County Parcel Information Inquiry For recorded documents like deeds, mortgages, and liens, the Register of Deeds operates a separate system called LandShark, where you can search by owner name. The site recommends entering at least two letters of a first name for best results.
A tax bill and a deed tell you different things. The tax bill identifies who is responsible for property tax payments, which could be a trust, an LLC, or a property manager. The deed identifies the actual legal owner of the interest in the real estate. For high-value properties frequently held through legal entities, those two names may not match. If you want to confirm true ownership rather than just who pays the taxes, the deed is what matters.