 Blair had been the client, neighbor, and friend of Adler, and had recruited Adler to become a trustee of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1925.Adler designed a house for Blair on an estate they purchased in 1926 when the Crab Tree Farm of Henry Williams Blodgett in Lake Bluff, Illinois was broken up by Scott Sloan Durand (1869–1949).Their garden was designed by Ellen Biddle Shipman.