Harold Morrison: Service and Science

Harold M. Morrison (1932-2018) was devoted to giving back to his community and those surrounding in countless ways through his life.

Mary Mathews Dick: Changing Healthcare in Lake Forest

Mary Henrietta Mathews was born in Schenectady, New York, and grew up and attended school in Galesburg, Illinois. She and A. B. Dick were wed in 1892; he had previously been married to her sister Alic...

House of Worship to House of Family: Ferry Hall Chapel

The Ferry Hall Chapel has one of the most unique histories of any religious site in the area. Built in 1888 in a Gothic style by Henry Ives Cobb and Charles Sumner Frost, the chapel is located on what...

Elliott Donnelley: The Tracks to Town

As mayor of Lake Forest, Elliott Donnelley (1903-1975) expanded Lake Forest’s boundaries. As a local philanthropic leader, he also expanded the horizons of Lake Forest College students and children al...

Elmer Vliet: Lake Bluff Leader, Community Historian

Elmer Vliet was a longtime Lake Bluff resident and village historian. Born in Joliet, Illinois in 1897, he began work as a research chemist at Abbott Alkaloidal Company at age 22. When the company mov...

Sylvester Lind: Founder and Four-Time Mayor

Sylvester Lind was a Scottish immigrant who came to Chicago in 1837, in the early days before it was a big city, and found work as a carpenter. He eventually had his own business in Chicago selling lu...

Ferdinand Berghorn Jr.

The Berghorn family arrived in the United States from Germany in the 1880s; their journey west included stops in New Haven and Cincinnati before settling in Chicago in 1895. Ferdinand Berghorn Sr. was...

Neil N. Campbell: Engineering Lake Forest

Born in Ontario to a Scottish family, Neil N. Campbell first came to work in Lake Forest in 1910, shortly after graduating with a degree in engineering from the University of Illinois. He was promoted...

Lake Bluff Village Hall: A Chamber of Style, Expertise, and Service

Lake Bluff’s Village Hall was built in 1905 on land donated by Fred Cornish, the village president, and his wife. Architect Webster Tomlinson, a protégé of Louis Sullivan and business partner of Frank...

Murray Conzelman: Dean of Lake County Municipal Law

Born in Waukegan in 1929, Murray Conzelman became one of Lake County's most distinguished lawyers. He graduated from Lake Forest College in 1950, captaining the baseball team, and then Northwestern La...

Lake Forest 9-1-1

This flyer was mailed out to all Lake Forest residents in the fall of 1990, reminding them that starting on November 1, the number to call for all Lake Forest Emergency Services would be 911. Before t...

St. Patrick Cemetery

The stones in St. Patrick's Cemetery read like a list of west Lake Forest's pioneer families: Atkinson, Barker, Burns, Carolan, Conway, Dawson, Doyle, Fagan, Gibbons, Kennedy, Lancaster, Masterson, Me...

Lake Forest College's English Abbey: Lily Reid Holt Memorial Chapel

Located on the middle campus of Lake Forest College, the Lily Reid Holt Memorial Chapel stands as one of the most revered buildings on campus. The chapel was dedicated by Mrs. Simon S. Reid to her dau...

Beacon of the West: Christ Church of Lake Forest

Christ Church, informally known as the “Big White Church,” is an iconic Lake Forest landmark. The non-denominational church that is a newer yet prominent part of Lake Forest religious life traces its...

From Across the Atlantic: St. Patrick Catholic Church

What is now West Lake Forest was once nothing more than dense forest and untamed savannah. Potawatomi tribes accounted for the entire population, and up until the 1830s, even Chicago, thirty miles to...

Sesquicentenary Community: Union Church of Lake Bluff

In the years following the Civil War, small, non-denominational “Union” churches were being erected all around the country to help reunite the nation. The Union Church of Lake Bluff was one such churc...

First Baptist Church

The First Baptist Church of Lake Forest, home to a small yet vibrant Baptist community, has called Lake Forest its home for over 100 years. As a primarily African American congregation, some of the me...

Modern Beauty: St. James Lutheran Church

Located on Waukegan Road, St. James Lutheran Church is a newer congregation than some others in Lake Forest and Lake Bluff, but has rapidly grown. Meetings were first held in the Lake Bluff Junior Hig...

The Quaker Church: Lake Forest Friends Meeting

The Lake Forest Friends Meeting began in 1951 in a local home with a “sample” meeting lead by Anna Brinton, who came from a Pennsylvania Quaker study center. In early meetings, issues relevant to both...

History Center Roots: First Church of Christ Scientist

In the early 20th century, many followers of Christian Science living in Lake Forest and Lake Bluff attended the Church of Christ Scientist in Highland Park, until 1932 when the First Church of Christ...

The Church on the Corner of Deerpath and McKinley

The church located on the northeast corner of Deerpath and McKinley has presented something of a mystery to local residents for years. Its origins, however, are strongly rooted in the community.The ch...

Just Off 41: Faith Lutheran Church

First organized as a mission of the Redeemer Lutheran Church of Highland Park, the Faith Lutheran Church of Lake Forest began meeting in 1937 in response to the substantial number of Lutherans in Lake...

St. Mary's Catholic Church

When the Great Chicago Fire ravaged the city back in 1871, many Chicagoans moved north to the suburbs, causing an influx of Catholic families. The only Catholic church in Lake Forest at the time was S...

Camp to Congregation: Grace United Methodist Church

In the 1870's, Lake Bluff was home to a summer Camp Meeting where, for several weeks, Sunday school, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, and Chautauqua-style meetings were held. The camp drew visi...

The Foundation of Lake Forest: First Presbyterian Church

As the earliest religious group of (east) Lake Forest, the First Presbyterian Church traces its roots back to the 1850's, before Lake Forest was officially founded. A community of Presbyterians from C...

Lake Bluff Fire Department

In 1897, a volunteer fire organization was formed in Lake Bluff in response to a disastrous fire at the Hotel Irving where a valiant bucket brigade was not enough to save the building.In 1929, the vil...

Lake Bluff Police Department: By Foot, Bicycle, and Car

Franklin Pearce was appointed the first Village Marshal in 1896. In 1928, Eugene Spaid became Lake Bluff’s first Chief of Police until 1946 when Christian Elfert, who joined the force as a patrolman u...

Church of the Holy Spirit

The Episcopal church is the American offshoot of the Anglican church, which itself is a direct descendant of the Roman Catholic Church. As Lake Forest’s only Episcopalian church, the Church of the Hol...

Deer Path Art League

The Deer Path Art League was established on September 22, 1954 by creative-minded residents of Lake Forest and Lake Bluff. The non-profit organization sought to provide opportunities for artists in th...

Walker Sales

Walker Sales was one of the earliest members of the Lake Forest police force. Born in 1864 in Morganfield, Kentucky, to Emily Sales, he came to Lake Forest around 1890, after years working as a farm l...

Triangle Park: In the Middle of It All

The plot of land that is today "Triangle Park" was formed from Lake Forest's 1857 town plan, created by landscape architect Almerin Hotchkiss. His design for Lake Forestintegrated the town into the te...

Jack and Jill of America - North Shore Chapter

Marion Stubbs Thomas founded Jack and Jill of America, Incorporated on January 24,1938 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Twenty motherscame together to discuss creating an organization to provide social,...

Smith Hayes and Political Influence

Location: Illinois Road between Oakwood and Bank Lane

Smith Hayes was born enslaved in Mississippi in 1845. He joined the Union Army in 1864 at Vicksburg, serving in the 72nd Illinois Infantry, Company C as a Private, Undercook. After the Civil War he ma...

Building Community

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

After putting down roots, the African American community blossomed, creating cultural institutions that have left imprints on Lake Forest society. Early residents founded two churches, the African Met...

Virginia Fiester Frederick: Forging a Path for Women

Virginia Fiester Frederick was a fashion designer who outfitted hundreds of North Shore women and a politician who served both Lake Forest and the state of Illinois.Born Virginia Heise in 1916, she gr...