Lake Forest College, 100 North Sheridan Building Renovation

Project Scope

Converting the house from a residential use to an institutional use, the project combined institutional code and use requirements with residential renovation.  The building originally was a stable built on 1860 for the Harvey Thompson House at 560 North Sheridan Road and is believed to have been converted to a home in 1905.  The Sample family undertook a significant renovation in the 1920-1930 period, creating a high-style classic home by architect Stanley Anderson that resembled a stately English country place.  The project is significant for the care with which the Brown family and the College undertook landscape preservation and the quality of the renovation. In other hands, the house might have been torn down to maximize the economic potential of the valuable land, and an essential element of the historic neighborhood would have been lost.