The Lake Forest Library is the public library serving Lake Forest, Illinois

Lake Forest, Illinois

Lake Forest is an affluent city located in Lake County, Illinois, United States. The city is south of Waukegan along the shore of Lake Michigan, and is a part of the Chicago metropolitan area and the North Shore. Lake Forest was founded around Lake Forest College and was laid out as a town in...

. It is located at 360 E. Deerpath, Lake Forest, Illinois.

Statistics

• Registered Borrowers: 15,645 (81% of population)¹
• Annual Circulation: 465,927 items (24.1 per capita)¹
• Square Footage: 32,800²
• Total Holdings: 145,496 (print and audio visual items)¹

History

The Lake Forest Library was chartered on July 4, 1898 by Mayor Edward F. Gorton, and opened on the second floor of the new city hall as part of that building's grand opening on June 24, 1899.³ The first library board members, appointed by Mayor Gorton soon after granting the charter, were J. J. Halsey, D. W. Hartman, Calvin Durand, George S. Holt, Charles S. Frost, John Kemp, David B. Jones, Richard G. Watson, and David Fales.³

The library moved to its current location in 1931. The present building, designed as a library by architect Edwin H. Clark, was given to the city by Mrs. Charles H. Schweppe and Mrs. Stanley Keith in memory of Mrs. Keith’s first husband, Kersey Coates Reed, and was dedicated on June 7, 1931. Significant changes to the building are listed below:⁴

1967: Installation in Children's Department of Apple Tree Children, bronze and wood sculpture by Sylvia Shaw Judson

Sylvia Shaw Judson

Sylvia Shaw Judson , also known as Sylvia Shaw Haskins, was an American sculptor and teacher.-Early life and education:Shaw was born in 1897 in Lake Forest, Illinois, near Chicago, the daughter of prominent Chicago architect Howard Van Doren Shaw. She attended the Westover School in Connecticut. In...

,

daughter of Howard Van Doren Shaw

Howard Van Doren Shaw

Howard Van Doren Shaw was an American architect. He became one of the best-known architects of his generation in the Chicago area.-Early life and career:...

.

1978: Addition of three wings underwritten by community gifts and a

substantial donation from the Reed family. Brenner, Danforth, and Rockwell, architects.

1990: Three-level bookstack renovation.

1992: Children's Department renovation. Thomas Melvin mural for Children's foyer commissioned by

the Friends of Lake Forest Library.

1996: Adult Reference and Friends Reading Room renovations. Michael Croydon's, "Ex Libris" sculpture commissioned

by the Deer Path Art League of Lake Forest and installed on the library's front lawn. Restoration of the Nicolai

Remisoff "Poets and Writers of Antiquity" murals originally installed in 1932. Funded by the Friends

of Lake Forest Library.

2001: Completion of the Louise Wells Kasian Children's Activity Center in the space of the former children's courtyard.

Designed by David Woodhouse Architects.

2003: Business Room renovation funded by the Eugene A. and Emily L. Veto Foundation and the Friends

of Lake Forest Library.

2005: Fine Arts Room renovation funded by the Friends of Lake Forest Library.

2006-2007: Two-year landscape restoration funded by the Friends of Lake Forest Library.

2009: Renovation of Children's Library. Additional Thomas Melvin murals commissioned by the Friends of Lake Forest Library.

External links

Lake Forest Library homepage

Illinois Digital Archives (IDA) homepage - includes images and history of the library

City of Lake Forest homepage

Lake Forest - Lake Bluff Historical Society homepage