Frederick Wainwright Perkins: Flexible Interpretation

Wisconsin-born Frederick Wainwright Perkins (1866-1928) was a prominent Chicago architect who graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Highly successful in his day, Perkins favored Sh...

Arthur Heun: Grand Domestic Design

Arthur Heun was born in Michigan in 1866 and graduated from the University of Michigan’s architecture program. He came to Chicago to work as a draftsman for Francis Whitehouse. In 1893, Heun took over...

Ike Colburn: Too Modernist for Lake Forest?

Ike Colburn was born in Boston in 1924. He attended Carnegie Tech in Pittsburgh and Yale University. Colburn came to the Chicago-area in 1951 at a time of post-war growth. He worked for Schweikher and...

Edward Bennett, Co-author of the 1909 Plan of Chicago

Edward Bennett was born England in 1874, later moving to San Francisco. There, well-known architect Bernard Maybeck, convinced Bennett to attend the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He returned to New Y...

William Carbys Zimmerman: State Architect and Estate Architect

Illinois State Architect William Carbys Zimmerman was born in Wisconsin in 1856. Upon graduation from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he moved to Chicago in 1886 and became a junior partner...

Russell Smith Walcott: Architect

Born in Chicago in 1889, Russell Walcott was a graduate of Princeton University. He studied architecture in Europe and worked with his older brother, Chester Walcott, from 1919-1920. Walcott later par...

Ralph Milman: Art Deco French Flair

Ralph Milman (1888-1963) graduated from Harvard in 1913 and started his career as an associate working in Howard Van Doren Shaw’s firm. By 1930, he had formed a partnership with another Shaw office ve...

Hugh Mackie Gordon Garden: Chicago Prairie School Master

Canadian Hugh M. G. Garden first arrived in Chicago in the 1880s, where he apprenticed as a draftsman working for Howard Van Doren Shaw, Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright among others. In 1895, he...

Lake Bluff Children's Home: Comfort and Space for Orphaned Children

For 75 years, from 1894-1969, the Lake Bluff Children’s Home (LBCH) helped more than 100 children annually. The legacy began with the arrival of six homeless children in 1894 from Chicago to be cared...

Mayflower Place: The Schweppe Estate

Address: 405 N. Mayflower Road, Lake ForestYear built: 1915-1917Architect: Frederick Wainwright PerkinsOriginal owners: Charles H. and Laura Shedd Schweppe

Havenwood II: Second Lake Forest Estate of the Ryersons

Address: 1075 E. Ringwood Road, Lake ForestYear built: 1914Architect: Howard Van Doren ShawOriginal owners: Edward Larned and Mary Pringle RyersonEdward Ryerson’s first Lake Forest estate, Havenwood I...

361 E. Westminster: Home to an Array of Fellowship and Education

When Dr. Charles Quinlan rebuilt his home at 404 East Deerpath in 1870 after a fire, he added a handsome outbuilding to the property, which at that time extended from Deerpath to Westminster alon...

Lakelandwood: The Field Estate

Address: 315 Moffett Road, Lake BluffYear built: 1912-1913Architect: Daniel Burnham & CompanyOriginal owners: Stanley and Sara Brown FieldThe nephew of department store magnate Marshall Field, Stanley...

La Lanterne: The Carolyn Morse Ely Estate

Address: 111 Moffett Road, Lake BluffYear built: 1916; 1923Architect: David AdlerOriginal owner: Carolyn Morse Ely

The Thorne Estate on Ridge Road

Address: 600 South Ridge Road, Lake ForestYear built: 1909Architect: Edwin H. ClarkOriginal owners: James Ward and Narcissa Niblack ThorneThe tall and dramatic French Renaissance manor-style home in w...

The Evergreens: 404 East Deerpath

In 1859, Dr. Charles Quinlan, investor in the Lake Forest Association and the town’s first physician, built a home on the site of today’s 404 E. Deerpath. It was one of the first estates in the newly...

Ardleigh: The John V. Farwell Jr. Estate

Address: 121 S. Stone Gate Lane, Lake ForestYear built: 1896Architect: Arthur HeunOriginal owners: John V. Jr. and Ellen Drummond Farwell

Innisfail II: The Cudahy Estate on Green Bay Road

Address: 830 N. Green Bay Road, Lake ForestYear built: 1930Architect: David AdlerOriginal owners: Joseph and Jean Morton CudahyKnown as Innisfail II, this French Norman house clad in square-cut lannon...

Little Cottage: Country Home of Countess Gizycki

Address: 90 N. Ahwahnee Road, Lake ForestYear built: 1907Architect: Howard Van Doren ShawOriginal owner: Bessie Swift Fernald

House in the Woods: The Wheeler Estate

Address: 20 S. Mayflower Road, Lake ForestYear built: 1934Architect: David AdlerOriginal owners: Leslie and Violet Patten WheelerSet in a Jens Jensen-designed woodland garden, this 1934 home is a bala...

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...

Centaurs: A Renaissance-Inspired Estate for the Hamill Family

Address: 1115 E. Illinois Road, Lake ForestYear built: 1913Architect: Henry Dangler and David AdlerOriginal owners: Alfred E. and Clarice Walther HamillAlfred Hamill’s cousin, Ecole des Beaux-Arts tra...

Covin Tree: The Brewster Estate

Address: 20 W. Westminster, Lake ForestYear built: 1907Architect: Howard Van Doren ShawOriginal owners: Walter Stanton and Katherine Lancaster BrewsterThis Italian villa-like house is on the west side...

Beauty Beside the Lake: Helen Shedd Reed House

“Don’t let us make this a stuffy house.” -Helen Shedd Reed, in Town & Country, 1934.

Rookwoods: Helen Culver Estate

Year built: 1899Architect: Pond & PondOriginal owner: Helen CulverHelen Culver purchased 40 acres on Waukegan Road from the McGlennin family in 1899, making her one of the first estate owners west...

Glamour on the Lakefront: the Lester Armour House

Address: 700 Arbor Drive, Lake BluffYear built: 1931Architect: David AdlerOriginal owners: Lester and Leola Stanton ArmourLester Armour was the grandson of meatpacking tycoon Philip Danforth Armour. H...

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...

Map: Lake Forest, 1881

Many streets in Lake Forest changed their names in the 1910s.Depot Avenue --> McKinley AvenueHazel Avenue --> Church StreetLinden Avenue --> College RoadPoplar Avenue --> Rosemary RoadMapl...

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...

999 North Lake Road: The Clayton Mark House

Address: 999 North Lake Road, Lake ForestYear built: 1917Architect: Howard Van Doren ShawOriginal Owner: Clayton and Anna LaRue Griffith MarkStretched along a narrow lakefront site, the huge, classica...

Walden: Luxury and Simplicity in Natural Surroundings

Year built: 1896Architect: Jarvis HuntOriginal owners: Cyrus and Harriet Hammond McCormickThis 100-acre New England Shingle-style country estate was named Walden after Henry D. Thoreau’s book on livin...

Ragdale: Where Art Meets Prairie

Ragdale was the beloved country estate of one of the Chicago area’s greatest residential architects, Howard Van Doren Shaw. In 1897, on 33 acres just west of Green Bay Road, Shaw created a relaxed, su...

The Judah Estate on Westminster

Address: 111 West Westminster, Lake ForestYear built: 1928Architect: Philip Lippincott Goodwin; David Adler (garage)Original owners: Noble Brandon and Dorothy Patterson JudahBuilt between 1924 and 192...

Fairlawn II: Estate of Grace Farwell McGann

Address: 965 East Deerpath, Lake Forest; garage at 1010 Spring LaneYear built: 1923Architect: Delano & AldrichOriginal owner: Grace Farwell McGann and Robert G. McGannFairlawn I, the Charles B. Fa...

Charles Pike House: A Renaissance Villa on the Lake

Address: 955 North Lake RoadYear built: 1917Architect: David Adler and Robert WorkLandscape architect: Adler and Ralph Rodney RootOriginal owner: Charles Burrall Pike and Frances Alger PikeBehindthe h...

Poole House: An 18th Century French Chateau in Lake Bluff

Address: 1010 North Green Bay Road, Lake BluffYear built: 1913Architect: David Adler and Henry DanglerOriginal owner: Ralph Hutchinson Poole and Marie Wright Richards PooleA celebration of Louis XV st...

Clow House on Green Bay - An Inspired Beginning for Adler and Dangler

Address: 461 North Green Bay Road, Lake ForestYear built: 1913Architect: David Adler and Henry DanglerOriginal owner: William Ellsworth Clow Jr. and Isabelle Mann ClowVery near downtown Lake Forest,...

Suffield House: The Neo-Georgian Home of Mrs. J. Ogden Armour

Address: 255 North Green Bay RoadYear built: 1934Architect: David AdlerOriginal owner: Mrs. J. Ogden Armour (Lola Hughes Sheldon Armour - "Lolita")Lolita S. Armour’s grand Neo-Georgian mansionwith its...

The Bentley House: A David Adler Home Overlooking Lake Michigan

Address: 1421 Lake RoadYear built: 1928Architect: David AdlerOriginal owners: Richard Bentley and Phoebe Norcross Bentley

Innisfail I: The Cudahy Estate

Address: 275 SussexYear built: 1914Architect: David Adler and Henry DanglerOriginal owners: Joseph M. Cudahy and Jean Morton Cudahy

549 King Muir Road

This property once served as the gardener’s cottage for Westmoreland, the country place of the Dick family. In 1902, architect James Gamble Rogers designed the forty-acre estate for Albert Blake and M...

640 North Mayflower Road

This property was originally part of the 1875 Calvin Durand estate “Merrie Meade,” at 600 Mayflower. Durand (1840-1911) was a Civil War veteran, wholesale grocery magnate, Lake Forest mayor, and local...

545 East College Road

This property exemplifies some of the lovely Queen Anne-style homes that dotted the streets of Lake Forest in its early years. It was built, probably as an investment, by David J. Lake in 1873. Lake w...

896 Church Street

This house was built in 1920 for Russell and Kathleen Lord. Russell Lord was president of Ayer & Lord Tie Co., which manufactured railroad crossties. He had served as a captain of artillery with the 3...

Smith House: 370 East Onwentsia Road

This house was built in 1926 for Hermon Dunlap Smith and Ellen Thorne Smith; the home of Smith’s brother Lawrence Dunlap Smith was constructed just down the road at 190 East Onwentsia around the same...

805 East Westminster Avenue

This property was originally the coach house to the Russell Day Hill and Lucia Green Hill estate at 808 E Deerpath, and is the product of the Chicago office of the Boston architects Shepley Rutan and...

Lake Bluff Camp Meeting Association Office

Location: 500 East North Avenue, Lake Bluff

Built circa 1876, this house served as the office of the Lake Bluff Camp Meeting Association (LBCMA) and was originally located on Prospect Avenue, where the Union Church now stands. After the Village...

Wheeler House: 436 East Woodland Avenue

This property was originally designed as a summer house for Leslie and Rhoda Violet Patten Wheeler in 1916 by famed Chicago architectural firm Holabird and Roche. Construction had to be put off until...

Bagatelle: 89 East Deerpath Road

This property, known as Bagatelle, was built by its first owner Edward H. Bennett, known as one of the most respected city planners in the country in the early 1900s. Though Bennett was the son of an...

570 Lakeland Drive

This property sits on the land that was home to “Lakelandwood,” the estate of Stanley Field. Field, the nephew of department store magnate Marshall Field, served as an employee and executive for 70 y...

33 North Stone Gate Lane

This property was subdivided from the Morse estate “Fairmore.” Fairmore, also known as “Carwythen,” was originally built in the Georgian style for Mark Willing by architects Frost and Granger in 1910...

Kerrigan House: Oldest Residence in East Lake Forest

Location: 1240 North Sheridan Road, Lake Forest

This is the oldest house in the East Lake Forest National Register district and is the only one that predates the original 1857 plat of Lake Forest. It was built by John Francis Kerrigan, who moved to...

Speidel House: 1215 Edgewood Road

This Colonial Revival was built for Philip and Virginia Speidel in 1927. Philip Speidel was a local banker who served as president of First National Bank of Lake Forest, now The Northern Trust, from 1...

Building Neighborhoods

Deeply Rooted and Rising High: African American Experiences in Lake Forest

Today, Lake Forest’s Black residents live all around the city, but historically, this was not always the case. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, African Americans built homes mainly in specific neigh...

Map: Lake Forest, 1873

Lake Forest map, 1861

Elsa and A. Watson Armour Family: Elawa and Beyond

As you know, the Armour family has a deep connection to Chicago as one of the city’s foremost pioneers of industry. Several members of the family have been residents of Lake Forest.

In "Play"n Air: The Ragdale Ring

Plays written and adapted by poet and playwright Frances Shaw were performed at her Lake Forest home, Ragdale, by family members and friends. In 1912, her husband, architect Howard Van Doren Shaw, des...

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...

Map: Lake Forest and environs, 1861

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...

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...

Arthur and Mary Aldis: The Aldis Compound