One of a pair of country houses designed by Chicago architect David Adler, this grand, two-story Italian villa–styled house set a precedent for the elite subdivision embracing the River Crest Country Club, of which cotton merchant Berney was a charter member. The house was the result of Flora Berney’s social contacts in Chicago, who suggested that she hire Adler, Chicago’s most polished country house architect. The site, which also contains Adler’s house for Elizabeth Anderson, Flora Berney’s mother, totals almost one hundred acres. The stucco-clad Berney house is the larger of the two, and the entrance arcade of three stuccoed arches over round stone columns indicates its larger cultural aspirations.
The Elizabeth Anderson House (1917), a Tuscan-styled villa of cement-washed brick, with a simple arched entrance beneath a cantilevered balcony, is impressive in its understatement. The Anderson and Berney houses are both roofed with red tile.