Editing Barrington Hills, Illinois (section)

===Railroad and gentleman farms===
Starting about 1900, business executives from Chicago, many of whom were tied to the railroad industry, purchased the rolling farms and subdivided them into large summer estates. One such individual was Spencer C. Otis Sr., who by 1910 is credited with purchasing {{convert|1000|acre|0}} of farmland along what was then Goose Lake Road but is now known as Otis Road and creating Hawthorne Farm. Otis was a "[[gentleman farmer]]" of the era. He worked in Chicago commerce, but his hobby was [[dairy]] farming on his large country estate which was led by his son Spencer Otis Jr. who attended agricultural school in at the University of Illinois in Urbana. At this time the university was experimenting building round barns, of which became an Otis signature, as there were three built on the Hawthorne Farm.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fitch |first=Victoria R. |title=Hark Back to Barrington: 50 Years with the Fox River Hunt |date=1993 |publisher=Barrington Area Historical Society |location=Barrington, Illinois |pages=1}}</ref> Several of Otis Senior's business associates, including George E. Van Hagen, also built large estates in the area and ran their summer homes as year-round dairy farms.