One hundred years ago, Lake Forest had a population of about 3,500 people and a lot less land said Laurie Stein, curator of the Lake Forest-Lake Bluff Historical Society.
Stein spoke to about 30 people at the Lake Forest Library the evening of Oct. 1.
“[Lake Forest] was transitioning from a small village centered on churches and schools to a full-fledged Chicago suburb,” said Stein.
Alice Thompson, wife of outgoing mayor Leverett Thompson, attempted to standardize the names of Lake Forest’s meandering streets, Stein said. The next mayor, William Mather Lewis, a former headmaster at Lake Forest Academy, had his hands full with a controversy over showing movies on Sundays.
“Did this new-fangled entertainment allow people to break the Sabbath?” Stein asked. “A motion to keep them open on Sundays failed, but within a few years, the City Council reversed the decision.”
Stein said at least initially, the war in Europe stimulated the local economy. As war-time industrialists made their fortunes, new Lake Forest estates were built every year and significant improvements were made on others, according to Stein.
She said that among those improved was Mellody Farm the estate of J. Ogden Armour, meatpacking magnate.
“A railroad bisected his property,” Stein said. “The family was tired of noisy freight cars and nosy passengers who would stare at his estate. He built the world’s longest barrier fence, as it was described in the baiduhai, one mile long.”
She said that over on Ridge Road, a young F. Scott Fitzgerald visited his would-be girlfriend Ginevra King in 1916.
“It made quite an impression on him as a young man,” Stein said. “It inspired the creation of several of his leading characters including Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby.”
King’s childhood home, at 210 S. Ridge Rd., designed by architect Howard Van Doren Shaw will be restored as part of a new 33-house subdivision now passing through the approval process of the Lake Forest City Council.
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Stein said that about 1911, a small group of locals started to make plans to improve the business district. Among them was Cyrus McCormick, inventor and founder of McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, which later became part of International Harvester, Stein said. Architect Van Doren Shaw was called upon to design Market Square.
“The business district was sort of an afterthought,” she said. “Business was something that was transacted in Chicago. As the population grew, so did the demand for local goods and services.”
The initial business district that rose along Western Avenue near the train station was of wood-framed and brick buildings with false fronts, she said, and behind the storefronts was an alley with warehouses and garbage.
“It presented a startling contract to the estates and well-planned buildings,” Stein said.
She said the locals paid $225,000 for all the lots although it took them another two years to raise the next $100,000. Part of the challenge was the 1913 passage of a federal income tax, which scared some people from investing, Stein said. The total cost of buying the land and building Market Square was $750,000, she said.
Construction began in 1915 and took a bit over a year, according to Stein, and by April 1916, Market Square had its first tenant, a barber.
What got the most attention from that time was probably the murder trial of William Orpet, which made headlines nationwide. On Feb. 10, 1916, Marian Lambert, a high school senior, was found dead in Helm’s woods near a local train station. According to Tribune archives, Lambert believed she was pregnant and had been in a tumultous relationship a high school sweetheart.
“She was poisoned by cyanide and her boyfriend came under suspicion,” Stein said.
The two had been classmates at Deerfield-Shields High School, where Highland Park High School is today, Stein said. Lambert was a senior there while Orpet was a student at the University of Wisconsin.
Orpet returned to Lake Forest secretly to meet with Marion and break the news he was planning to marry someone else, according to Tribune archives.
It looked bad for Orpet, Stein said. When questioned by police, he reportedly changed his story several times, according to a 2010 account in the Tribune.
“He had gone for elaborate lengths to hide his trip down from Madison,” Stein said. “He arranged for a friend to post three letters for him, purposely messed his bed at the rooming house and borrowed a friend’s overcoat so there would be less of a chance of him being recognized.
“The topper was he had easy access to cyanide, which was stored in the greenhouses of the McCormick estate (where his family lived),” Stein said.
Orpet was thrown into jail in Waukegan and then indicted by a grand jury led by Ralph Dady, the state’s attorney of Lake County, according to Tribune accounts.
Orpet, however, hired a “crack legal team” which managed to turn a few of the prosecutors’ witnesses, according to Stein.
On the stand, Orpet admitted he had tried to hide the fact that he was leaving school but “said he was doing it to not upset his parents,” Stein said. “He came to see her because his attempts to break things off by letter” had upset Lambert.
Finally, it was found that the substance that killed Lambert was potassium cyanide, not liquid cyanide, according to Stein. Lambert’s chemistry teacher testified that she had access to potassium cyanide, Stein said.
“On July 16, 1916, he was found not guilty by a jury,” Stein said.
Attendee Georgia West said she enjoyed the talk by Stein.
“I learned several things I didn’t know,” said West.
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