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 the immediate community and the larger world were discussed, and included topics from as race-based housing discrimination in the North Shore to the Vietnam War.
As meetings grew to have more in attendance, the Friends recognized a need to have a proper meeting house. In 1964, Sidney Haskins, a local farmer, donated 3 acres of land on the corner of Ridge and Old Elm roads to the Friends, and drawings of a Meeting House were made. Some originally expressed concerns about spending so much money to build a Meeting House, arguing that the money could have been used to help those in need, but then the members agreed that the Meeting House would be used constructively by future members to create further change. The brick meeting house was completed in 1968, and was furnished with benches built from scrap wood of dismantled bunks from the Fort Sheridan military base.