East Lake Forest Walking Tour Preview

1

Market Square

Standing in front of the Lake Forest Shop you can see Market Square which was recognized by the National Register of Historic Places as the first planned shopping center in the United States. It was designed by Howard Van Doren Shaw and built in 1916. The fountain sculpture you see was designed by Shaw’s daughter, Silvia Shaw Judson Haskins. While Market Square is the business hub of downtown Lake Forest, shops continue in both directions on Western Avenue – including a shopping area a couple of blocks south and north of here. The Lake Forest Shop was opened in 1922 and is currently operated by the granddaughter of its founder.

2

Lake Forest Train Station

Across the street is our train station – designed by Charles Sumner Frost and Alfred Hoyt Granger in 1899. Funds contributed by Lake Forest citizens paid for the new station, which remains true to its original architecture. A major rehabilitation of the station was carried out from 2011 through 2018, with design led by preservation architect Gunny Harboe; the project was a public-private partnership between the City, Metra, and other governmental bodies along with the Lake Forest Preservation Foundation.Even back in 1899, there were about 20 trains a day making the round trip between Lake Forest and Chicago. This is the site of Lake Forest’s holiday tree lighting ceremony which is the day after Thanksgiving each year.

3

Gorton Community Center

Gorton Community Center is one of only a few privately-funded community centers in the United States and serves as a unique partnership between community volunteers and the City of Lake Forest. Adults and children find quality programs here, from classes, dance, film, performing arts, and day care. The second floor houses a variety of resident non-profits including the offices of the Lake Forest Preservation Foundation. Designed, built and opened as the Central School in 1901, the original building was designed by James Gamble Rogers and remodeled in 1907 by Howard Van Doren Shaw, the designer of Market Square. Throughout the decades Gorton has had many additions, both as a school and community center. In 2014 the 309 seat theater was renovated and renamed the John & Nancy Hughes Theater in honor of the late Lake Forest resident and director.www.gortoncenter.org

4

Church of the Covenants

Just as we cross the tracks, the church on your left is the only one designed by architect Howard Van Doren Shaw. Built in 1923, over the years several different congregations have been housed here, beginning as a Methodist church and today the Church of the Covenants.

5

Lake Forest Library

Built in 1931, the Library was the gift of the daughters of John G Shedd, president of Marshall Field and Company. It houses 128,000 items, and is one of the oldest public libraries in the state, with only 14 chartered earlier.The 1931 architect was Edwin Hill Clark and the 1978 additions were designed by Brenner Danforth Rockwell, Chicago architects. George Danforth was an early student and associate in Chicago of Mies van der Rohe, late 1930's and early 1940's, who then taught at IIT.www.lakeforestlibrary.org

6

Triangle Park

This is the site of the “Old Hotel”, the first public building in Lake Forest. It opened in the summer of 1858, a year after Lake Forest was platted. People intending to buy lots from the Lake Forest Association stayed there while they looked over their home sites. The deer sculpture was commissioned around 1902 for a home at 644 West Deerpath. New owners donated the Austrian designed deer to the city and it was moved here.

7

History Center of Lake Forest and Lake Bluff

Looking to the south you see The History Center of Lake Forest and Lake Bluff which was formed in 1972 and moved to this current site in 2018. The History Center building was originally home of The Church of Christ Scientist from 1949 until its purchase by the History Center in 2016. The 1948 architect was Charles Draper Faulkner, Boston with the interior by local architect Stanley D. Anderson's firm. The History Center is considered one of the most innovative museums in Lake County providing many fascinating programs, local tours, a research center and continuously changing special exhibits that celebrate all aspects of our community history. www.lflbhistory.org

8

550 E. Deerpath

This is the site of the 1859 Slyvester Lind home which burned in 1905, though the 1859 stable survives north of the driveway on the First Presbyterian property, built by Lind himself who had been an 1830's Chicago carpenter at the dawn there of balloon framing for houses. The 1906 house was by Hugh M. G. Garden for instigator and chair of the Burnham and Bennett Plan of Chicago of 1909. Sylvester Lind (1808-1892) was the founder of Lind University in 1857, now known as Lake Forest College, and a four-term mayor of Lake Forest.

9

First Presbyterian Church

The Presbyterian Church was founded in 1859. The current, second structure was built in 1887, designed by Cobb & Frost, Henry Ives Cobb and Charles Sumner Frost. This church is constructed of natural spotted limestone salvaged from the Second Presbyterian Church in Chicago which was destroyed in the Chicago fire of 1871.Architecturally, First Presbyterian Church represents a a combination of Romanesque and Colonial styles. The simple and solid Romanesque style harkens back to the first Christian churches, and represents the antiquity of Christian tradition. The steeple, solid walls, and straight lines of First Presbyterian follow Romanesque models. The Colonial style originates in the nineteenth-century revival and nostalgia for the Puritan New England churches,Artistically, First Presbyterian Church holds one of the finest collections of religious stained glass in Chicagoland. The central triptych window, Louis Comfort Tiffany's Resurrection Window, dates to 1902.

10

Lake Forest College-Durand Institute

Marking the North End of the Lake Forest College Campus, The Durand Institute completed in 1892, was designed by Henry Ives Cobb who also designed several buildings for Lake Forest College in the later 1880's and early 1890's, only two of which survive on campus. The other is the 1891 Gymnasium, now Hotchkiss Hall, on Middle Campus. The timing of Cobb's Lake Forest work was overlapping with his designing of this country’s first great Beaux-Arts Collegiate-Gothic campus plan for the University of Chicago (1891-93).It's a good example of Richardsonian Romanesque architectural style in red sandstone. It houses the Sonnenschein and Albright Galleries.

11

660 N Sheridan Road

Built in 1860, was the home of the first mayor of Lake Forest.

12

570 N Sheridan Road - The Homestead

The Homestead, also built in 1860, was the home of the founder of the Presbyterian Church. The house is built of brick with a wood exterior, called ‘lagging,’ an early attempt to make a house fireproof.

13

Lake Forest College-Lily Reid Holt Memorial Chapel

The chapel is an integral part of the campus and has exquisite Tiffany windows.

14

500 Sheridan Road - The Glen Rowan House-Lake Forest College

The Glen Rowan House was designed in 1908 by Howard Van Doren Shaw for an early social worker at Hull House. It was named for the abundant Rowan trees on the property, also known as mountain ash. The house has hosted such luminaries as Teddy Roosevelt and Martin Luther King, Jr.

15

Lake Forest College

Lake Forest College was founded in 1857 as Lind University. The Methodists had founded Northwestern University, and the Baptists founded the University of Chicago. Lake Forest College is the fulfillment of the dream of the Presbyterians who had journeyed to this area for the express purpose of building a school. Lake Forest College has been coed since its early days (it finally opened its doors in 1876), thanks to Mrs. Charles B. Farwell, wife of the Senator Farwell. Her daughter was finishing high school in Chicago and she wanted her at home to attend college. Her daughter was in the first graduating class – and Mrs. Farwell was a benefactor of the college for the rest of her life.www.lakeforest.edu

16

885 Maplewood – James R. Leavell House

The Tudor/French Normandy-style house was built in 1928 by Stanley D Anderson, the architect who also designed the Lake Forest High School, and previous Lake Forest Hospital building. The house won the historic preservation award in 2005 for rehabilitation.

17

Codfish Alley

Maplewood Road had lots of small cottages lined along the road. All remaining cottages have been enlarged and renovated. This used to be the area where household servants lived in the community.

18

Schweppe house

The Charles Schweppe EstateOn the lake and not visible from the street, a 1915 design of architect Frederick Perkins. Originally 20 bedrooms and 18 bathrooms This brick Tudor-style English country house was commissioned by John G. Shedd, chairman of Marshall Field and Co. for his daughter Laura, and her husband Laura and her sister later built the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago in memory of their fatherThe main entrance and fence were designed by architect James Allen in 1927. The wrought iron gates were fashioned by Samuel Yellin of Philadelphia, the most accomplished and best known master metal worker of the time. The Schweppes entertained royalty at the estate in the early part of the century. Laura Schweppe died in 1937 at the age of 58. Four years later her husband was found in his bed, dead from a gunshot wound. The mansion sat vacant for 45 years until 1986, when it when it was meticulously restored by new owners It’s considered to be haunted. The original estate, which totaled 28 acres, has been subdivided.

19

Mayflower Road Condominiums-Site of Ferry Hall

The Mayflower Road Condominiums are currently located on the site of Ferry Hall, which opened its doors in September 1869 as a school intended to “complete the education of the young lady students.” In 1888 Cobb & Frost designed a major expansion of the Ferry Hall campus. The only remnant of that 1869/1888 campus is the chapel, adaptively-reused as a residence in the Mayflower Condominiums complex. Ferry Hall was expanding to offer a women's college program in the late 1880's, Ferry College, which only lasted a few years. In late 1970s, Ferry Hall merged with Lake Forest Academy and the land was subdivided. The building, described in the first school catalog as “the spacious and elegant edifice” was converted to condominiums.

20

965 E. Deerpath - Fairlawn

Across the street is the entrance to Fairlawn which was built in 1923 on the site of the US Senator Charles B Farwell home, which was originally built in 1869 and had burned down in 1920.

21

Forest Park Beach

Forest Park Beach was incorporated into the city of Lake Forest in 1861. It is now considered a crown jewel in Lake Forest's collection of natural assets.You may walk east up the path to see Lake Michigan and the beach below.Designated as a site for a passive public park in the 1857 Plan of Lake Forest by landscape gardener Almerin Hotchkiss, the land was formally donated to the City of Lake Forest in 1861 by the Lake Forest Association when the city received its charter from the State of Illinois. The park consists of ten acres of tableland situated between two ravines and stretches along 3,200 feet of bluff along the Lake Michigan shoreline. It was platted by O. C. Simonds in 1896 at the direction of the Lake Forest City Council, for whom he worked on several projects, including nearby Lake Forest Cemetery. Forest Park is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as a contributing property in the Lake Forest Historic District.

22

955 N Lake Road - Pike Estate

Across the street David Adler designed this Italian Villa for Charles Pike in 1916. Pike’s father discovered Pike’s Peak. The Italian sculptures in the yard represent 10 muses and the four seasons. It took 100 men 3 months to dig the foundation for a sunken courtyard opening onto Lake Michigan.

23

999 N Lake Road- Clayton Mark House

Across the street the Clayton Mark House was built in 1914, designed by architect Howard Van Doren Shaw. Typical Shaw touches including baskets of fruit and flowers in concrete. The façade features a recessed central porch supported by two Tuscan columns.

24

1315 Lake Road - Kersey Coates Reed House

The Kersey Coates Reed House is one of David Adler’s finest works finished in 1931. It is built of Pennsylvania mica stone, which has a shiny slate look rarely seen in ChicagoThe estate is named after its first owner, Helen Shedd Reed, daughter of John G. Shedd, second president of Marshall Field & Co.

25

1390 Lake Road-McBride House

Across the street this 1936 Georgian home is the McBride House designed by Stanley D. Anderson. It’s one of the grandest of the Anderson designs.

26

1421 Lake Road-Richard Bentley Coach House

David Adler’s Bentley House (not visible due to the foliage) faces the lake and is directly east of its coach house. It is one of the many coach houses in Lake Forest.Screened by a unique white and dark green Dutch-style fence, the building was converted to a single family residence circa 1950.

27

Lake Forest Cemetery Entrance-Lake Road

These imposing gates were built by the master metalworker Samuel Yellin as a memorial. The Gothic arched gates were dedicated in 1919.The 23 acre cemetery designed by William LeBaron Jenney began officially accepting burials as Lake Forest Cemetery in 1882. In 1900, landscape designer Ossian Cole Simonds was commissioned to update the design of the grounds. The Barrell Memorial Gateway to Lake Forest Cemetery was designed by architect James Roy Allen with wrought iron gates by renowned Philadelphia blacksmith Samuel Yellin. The gates were designed as a lasting memorial to Grace and Finley Barrell's only son, John. John Witbeck Barrell passed away in 1916 at the age of 23. Three images are depicted on the gates: the Angel of Truth, the Angel of Light, and Saint Peter, whose figure serves as the doorknocker. The Gothic arched gates were dedicated in 1919.

28

Lake Forest Cemetery Gate House 520 spruce lane

Across the street you will see the entrance to the Lake Forest Cemetery Gatehouse on the right and the entrance to the St. Mary Cemetery on the left. The Lake Forest Cemetery Gatehouse was built in 2000 and won a Preservation Foundation award. In 1892 the cemetery donated 9 acres of land to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago which resulted in the creation of the St. Mary Catholic Cemetery. This cemetery was once connected to the Lake Forest Cemetery via a footbridge over a ravine.

29

999 N Sheridan Road- The Clarence Mitchell House

Across the street you see the entrance to the Clarence Mitchell House built in 1928. The current owners contacted Wrigley Field to see how they took their own ivy off the walls, restored the stadium, and put the ivy back on the walls again. The house won a Preservation Foundation restoration award in 1994.

30

The Winter Club

The Winter Club is a private club founded more than 100 years ago for families with children. Year around activities such as tennis, swimming, ice skating, children’s parties.

31

461 E. Westminster- Richardson House

The house across the street at 461 E. Westminster was designed by Stanley Anderson in 1936 for the Richardson family. The closet on the first floor was custom designed to store 10 bridge tables for the owners who were avid bridge players.

32

The Church Of The Holy Spirit

Architect Alfred Granger designed the Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2002.

33

334 E Westminster

The Quinlan house was built in 1862 and was Lake Forest’s first schoolhouse. It was converted to a residence in 1867 and moved about a block to its present location in 1906. Dr. Quinlan was the only doctor in Lake Forest from 1859 to after the Civil War.It has been recently restored and painted red in recognition of its origins as a schoolhouse.

34

Market Square Fountain

The statue "Friends" created 1969 by Sylvia Shaw Judson (1897-1978) was installed into the Market Square Fountain in 1982. Sylvia while being a famous local sculptor was also the daughter of the architect of Market Square, Howard Van Doren Shaw. Other pieces of her works are located throughout the communities of Lake Forest and Lake Bluff at the libraries and local schools and also in the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden at the White House.