Lake Bluff Golf Club: Public Recreation

Three 1960s’ themes—suburban sprawl, public recreation, and government projects—all came to the fore in the development of the Lake Bluff Golf Club. In the early part of the decade, plans surfaced for...

Conway Farms Golf Club: Patience with Golf and Planning

Though the Conway Farms Golf Club was built in 1991, the idea to put a course on early Lake County settler John Conway’s former dairy farm had been germinating for a long time. When three area familie...

A Dream of Lagoons: Proposed Development of the Lake Shore, c. 1910

For over a century, Lake Foresters have concerned themselves with the shoreline’s sustainability and future. In the early 1900s, the City Beautiful movement inspired a dream of a recreational lagoon a...

Conway Through The Years

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 uppe...

Suburban Growth in West Lake Forest

The 1950s ushered in a period of rapid change to Lake Forest. Alterations to the tax structure and transitions in family lifestyles marked the twilight of the estate era. The postwar baby boom and ope...

Lake Forest Heights: A Development 50 Years in the Making

Lake Forest Heights, between Everett and Old Elm roads west of the Skokie Highway, has spanned the years of subdivision growth in Lake Forest. The development was originally planned by the American Re...

Deerpath Hill Estates: City Beautiful in the Neighborhood

In the 1920s, developer Henry K. Turnbull began to buy properties along Deerpath, just east of Waukegan Road. Among the sellers were the Farrells, original pioneers to the area, and country estate own...

Mr. T and the Trees: Gets to the Root of the Things

Lake Forest’s reputation as “Tree City, USA” took a serious hit in 1987 not long after Lawrence “Mr. T” Tureaud moved to town.Born in 1952, Tureaud grew up in the Robert Taylor Homes in Chicago. His e...

Settlers Square Through the Years - A Bird's Eye View of West Lake Forest

These maps and aerial photographs reveal the history of Lake Forest’s western business district from its earliest settlement to the 1994 dedication of Settlers Square. Waukegan/Telegraph Road bisects...

Annexing the Conway Developments, 1988

In October 1988, Lake Forest City Council voted to annex Conway Farms, a 682-acre tract of land straddling Rte. 60. By extending its western boundary to the tollway, Lake Forest encompassed new, large...

John Griffith: Developing Lake Forest

John Griffith opened his Lake Forest business in 1903 which grew to include real estate, insurance and mortgages. Born in North Wales, he came to Chicago in 1888 and within five years was in Lake Fore...

Lake Forest Triples in Size: Everett Annexation, 1926

By the 1920s, country places had succeeded family farms as the dominant feature west of Lake Forest, and the owners began to wonder about the future of their property investments. Who would take care...

Market Square: Heralding a New Era in Urban Planning

At its beginnings, Market Square broke new ground. In 1916, as the nation’s first artfully designed shopping center, it linked pedestrian, automobile, and train, and heralded a new era in urban planni...

Mill Road Farm Golf Club: Tough Stuff

In 1925, noted golf architect William Flynn designed a course for Albert Lasker’s new estate, Mill Road Farm, that looms large in the lore of Chicago golf. Its difficulty was legendary. Length ranged...

Villa Turicum: Opulence and Melodrama

Year built: 1908-1918Architect: Charles PlattOriginal owners: Harold and Edith Rockefeller McCormickVilla Turicum is perhaps the best known of Lake Forest’s country estates, not least for its converge...