...Mary Nohl has spent most of her life in her family's cottage-like home on the shores of Lake Michigan, near the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. When her father first purchased the property in 1924, it was retired farm acreage. The Nohls were one of the first families to erect a summer home in this rural enclave and in 1943, with the advent of snowplows, they moved to the site year-round.

Today, where North Beach Drive winds down to the lake shore, every inch of valuable land is occupied by large, suburban homes. Parcel after parcel of meticulously groomed acreage skirt houses with giant picture windows, trimmed shrubbery and gleaming Jaguars out front.