Lake Forest Has Been Chicago's Old-Money Address Since the Meatpacking Fortunes Moved North

Lake Forest sits on a bluff above Lake Michigan roughly 30 miles north of Chicago, laid out from 1857 with deliberately curving, unnumbered streets meant to discourage the grid-plan development of the city it was built to escape. By the late 19th century it had become the preferred country retreat for Chicago's industrial and meatpacking wealth, families such as the Armours, Swifts and McCormicks among them, who built lakefront estates along its wooded ravines while keeping their businesses in the city.

A town plan built to keep its shape

Much of Lake Forest's built character comes from decisions made early and rarely revisited: large minimum lot sizes, a historic district with tight design review, and a private club culture that absorbed much of the town's social life rather than leaving it to hotels or restaurants. Market Square, completed in 1916 and often cited as one of the first planned shopping centres in the United States, was designed by architect Howard Van Doren Shaw specifically to keep commercial development contained to one compact, architecturally consistent block.

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Clubs rather than hotels

Lake Forest has never had much of a hotel trade, and that's largely intentional; its social calendar has long run through private institutions instead, among them a 19th-century country club known for polo and golf, and Lake Forest Academy and Lake Forest College, both established in the 1850s and 1860s. That combination of school ties, club membership and multi-generational estate ownership has kept the town's old-money character intact even as Chicago's broader wealth has diversified well beyond its original industrial families.

Still a working North Shore suburb

Unlike more overtly resort-oriented old-money enclaves, Lake Forest functions as a year-round residential suburb rather than a seasonal retreat, with many residents commuting into Chicago by Metra rail rather than treating the town as a holiday address. That everyday normalcy, layered over more than a century of preserved estates and unbroken club membership, is much of what keeps it recognisable as old money rather than new development.

Traveller tips

• Lake Forest is reachable from downtown Chicago by Metra's Union Pacific North Line or by car via I-94.
• Market Square and the historic district are best explored on foot; much of the estate architecture sits on private land visible only from the road.
• Chicago O'Hare International Airport is the nearest major airport, roughly 40 minutes away by car.
• The town's private clubs are membership-only; visitors typically see Lake Forest's estate architecture from public streets and Market Square rather than from inside its institutions.