Take a look at these maps and aerial photographs for a peek into the history of the land that became Conway Farms and Conway Park. The line through the middle is Rte. 60, the diagonal through the upper right corner is the railroad, and the diagonal in the lower half is Conway Road.

1861

Among the earliest settlers was John Conway, whose dairy farm straddled Conway Road, running diagonally through the lower part of the map. John Bolger also left his mark on the landscape for a time – the first name for Rte. 60 was Bolger Road.

1894

By 1894, the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad had come through. Much of the land was still farmed by children of the original settlers, including Martin Melody, who owned the large swathe that became Mellody Farm.

1916

In the early 1900s, wealthy businessmen from Chicago, like J. Ogden Armour and C. M. Leonard, purchased territory outside the city – but within commuting distance – and built country estates. Here they are still surrounded by smaller farms, including pioneer descendants Miles Conway and George Redmond.

1928

The 1920s were the heyday of the gentleman farm in Lake Forest. Mellody Farm, owned by J. Ogden Armour and then Samuel Insull, and Louis F. Swift’s Westleigh were among the largest.

1939

The 1930s and 1940s witnessed the dissolution of many estates in the area. Lake Forest Academy took over part of the Mellody Farm property. Mattress magnate Oliver Burton and A. B. Dick Co. CFO John G. Beadle purchased land south of Rte. 60. Architect Stanley Anderson remodeled the old Conway farmhouse for the Beadles.

1961

It was during the 1950s that several transformative developments occurred. Marshall Field IV bought land north of Rte. 60 from Gen. Robert Wood and built a modern ranch house. Robert D. Stuart Jr. and his family moved to the former Conway farm, which they called Topsfield Farm. The Tri-State Tollway, at left in the photo, was constructed. The Conway partners, Stuart and associates Augustin and Margaret Hart, James Getz, and Gordon Smith, began acquiring properties in the area as a long-term investment, starting with the Oliver Burton farm.

1993

Through the next few decades, this tract remained farmland, an anomaly for the area rife with suburban growth. By the 1980s, the Conway partners, along with Marshall Field V and Cabot, Cabot & Forbes, began to develop their plans for the properties. In 1988, the area was annexed by Lake Forest. In the photo you can see the recently-completed Conway Farms golf course and the Conway Park office complex.

2012

By 2012, the Conway tracts had become more fully integrated into the Lake Forest community, with residential development in place (visible in the photo surrounding the golf course), students attending Lake Forest schools, international corporate headquarters established at Conway Park, and the new City of Lake Forest Municipal Services building (the white building at the top edge of the photo) opened.