Lake Forest-Lake Bluff History Museum

Winter Club: Recreation for All Seasons

Cooler By The Lake

James O. Heyworth at the Winter Club, 1915. Image source: Marni Wilson.

c. 1905.

Drawing by Vic Turner, ""A Country House Party, 1908"" showing the toboggan run.

This 1915 photo of James O. Heyworth shows the toboggan adjacent to the skating rink (rather than over Sheridan Road). Image source: Marni Wilson.

Nancy Poole pushing Ginevra Mitchell at the Winter Club. Image Source: Chicago Daily News.

Sign at the Winter Club swimming pool, 1957.

Squash court building at the Winter Club, 1957.

Winter Club Hockey Team, 1964. Image source: Winter Club.

Frederick C. Aldrich is credited with first suggesting the formation of a winter sports club located somewhere near the center of Lake Forest in 1900. The Winter Club was organized two years later.

Before the clubhouse was built, an outdoor skating rink was installed along with a toboggan slide which was said to have crossed over Sheridan Road.

Architect and founding member Alfred H. Granger designed the clubhouse, completed in 1903, to accommodate 200 people.

The Winter Club would soon offer all season fun with a swimming pool, squash and tennis courts, but winter sports remained a key focus. During the 1930s and 1940s, the club was the athletic extension of the Bell School. Activities in the 1960s offered included sailing programs as well as lacrosse, slot racing, soccer, and field hockey and platform tennis.

Ice hockey reached its peak during the 1960s. The Winter Club Bantam Hockey team were State Champions, competing in national tournaments at Lake Placid, New York (1965) and Edina, Minnesota (1968).