Market Square: "The New Market Square at Lake Forest, Illinois"

              The New Market Square at Lake Forest, Illinois
A Practical Illustration of Town Planning
Howard Shaw, Architect
By PETER B. WIGHT

Much as has been written and said about town planning and village improvement, there are not many instances in which it has been carried to complete fruition, and probably none other in which the design has been of such artistic character and executed in such a thorough and fire-resisting manner as that of the new Market Square of Lake Forest, Illinois.  This is practically a suburb of Chicago, about twenty miles from its northern limits, and situated on the west shore of Lake Michigan.  The business part of it is located about half a mile in a direct line west of the lake and on the west side of the Milwaukee Division of the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad and the Chicago and North Shore Electric Road.  East of the railroad, between it and the lake, was once an almost impenetrable forest reaching, with but a few clearings, about ten miles from north to south.  About forty-five years ago this forest became an attractive place – on account of the diversified character of its native trees, its bluff on the lake front, and the picturesque ravines which cut through it carrying the drainage down to the lake; for the country residences of wealthy citizens of Chicago, built in clearings in the forest.  It was also the seat of a small university and a boys’ academy from early in the time mentioned.  It has been laid out with roads, from time to time none of which are straight, but which make a great number of secluded building sites possible, and easily accessible to those who know the way.

Lake Forest has received its support, its wealth and what little business it has almost solely from Chicago.  Yet its business district west of the railroad station, if such it could be called, has always been a disgrace to civilization.  Lake Forest is an incorporated city, with a mayor and city council, but they do not seem to have been able to improve its physical and aesthetic condition.  That has always rested with the residents who came from Chicago and built first very attractive and commodious frame residences for their own use, and more recently the most sumptuous and costly mansions in the state of Illinois, many of them splendid examples of architecture.

The photograph of the two-story brick and frame shanties, with false fronts and high steps, taken about six years ago, which heads this article, is strikingly like Sun Dance, Wyoming, in the early 80’s.  The opposite side of the main street, called Western avenue on the map, is occupied by the railway station.  The narrow street separating the shops and the railway station was always very congested with automobiles at train time.  The lots facing on the main street had a depth of 260 feet to a wide alley.  The buildings occupied