Lake Forest East Train Station Redux
by Arthur Miller

The Preservation Foundation’s major interest for the past two years has been the condition of and future for the 1900 east Lake Forest train station. The Foundation led in renovating the station after the Chicago & North Western Railway and
other railroads abandoned inter-city passenger travel in the 1960s, leaving the initiative to locals. Organized in 1976, the Foundation was engaged in this task within a few years and was its focus in the early 1980s. But a quarter century later, once again, the station is in disrepair, even while our appreciation has
grown for its historic and architectural significance.

This year the Board of Directors undertook an Historic Structure Report (HSR) study of the station with Harboe Architects of Chicago. This firm is led by Gunny Harboe who has worked on preservation of the Rookery, the Burnham Hotel, 860-880 North Lake Shore Drive by Mies van der Rohe, and now Louis Sullivan’s former Carson’s building in the Loop. The firm’s highly-disciplined investigative work and its architects’ skill in seeing possibilities for restoration and renewal of this iconic “fourth” but also “first” (built) side of internationally-significant Market Square have yielded many new insights and stimulated a level of research pursuit including use of the internet heretofore unparalleled locally. Thanks to life member and experte railway professional periodical, has turned up--the first such view of the original station interior ever discovered.

Our station experience from a quarter century ago has taught us that we need to plan this time for durable materials comparable to the 1900 originals. The station lasted over eighty years. It would be prudent to phase our renovation so that good,
similarly-permanent and historically-accurate materials can be employed to insure that this fix will not be a boomerang one, coming back to require more major expense in a few decades. With good advice, careful planning, and broadly
based community support we hope that this restoration can be worthy of the significance of the first shopping center, its essential context and template for scale and style.

Though our HSR report is not yet completed, we have seen drafts and see that there is much to be done to insure the future of this 1900 Frost & Granger gem. We will recommend making up-front investment to reduce longer-term replacement and maintenance costs. One serious option is geothermal
heating and cooling drawing on steady 55 degree belowground temperatures to warm and chill the air year-round, with traditional HVAC only supplementing. The upfront cost is significantly more than another twenty-five year, energy intensive fix. But the long-term cost savings and contribution to reduction of global warming makes this an intriguing and attractive possibility. Also, the facilities or restrooms have retained a certain last-century je ne sais quoi. Not only must
disabled access be provided, but for a town center with as many events as we have developed here requires more space for this infrastructure. Some say that the demise of Marshall Field’s made this infelicity more glaring and the need for a solution more urgent.

How should we proceed? Every indication is that this will require a level of fundraising well beyond the scope of the Foundation’s 1980’s effort and also beyond the reasonable reach of this organization and its financial scale. The Harboe HSR alone has consumed a third of our funds, as our 2008- 09 financial report shows. Like Market Square 2000, a two-year effort that renewed the park and infrastructure for Market Square, this task of bringing back and paying
forward the train station appears to require a separate 501c3 charitable organization to make decisions, raise funds, obtain final design work, carry out an appropriate restoration, and provide for future maintenance. This must be an all-out and community-wide effort, drawing in partners from all quarters to accomplish this essential work.

If the task ahead is daunting, though, it is one that will be built on careful study and analysis and a renewed appreciation for this community’s significant heritage. It comes at a time when the country is stepping back and looking at making solid, long-term investments in infrastructure and in greenfriendly
energy choices. If the stock market level seems to tell us not even to try, the national mood for doing things right and investing in the future is reaching a new modern high level. In an energy-responsible future, too, train travel is getting renewed attention for its efficiency promising more utilization for our local stations. A renewed station will help reduce the charm of inefficient driving to Chicago one by one. This investment, as well, can be the start of a new commitment to the viability of our central business district, one of the most significant not only in the region but in an international context. That is our challenge.