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With exterior renovations on the downtown train station all but complete, the city of Lake Forest and the Lake Forest Preservation Foundation are turning their attention toward the interior.
Work at the station began in March and over the months has included refurbishing windows, replacing stones, tuck-pointing bricks and replacing limestone and wood beams where necessary.
“It was very labor intensive work, very slow work to get that done without breaking anything or having anything collapse,” said Arthur Miller, president of the Lake Forest Preservation Foundation.
The foundation paid to have the building evaluated in 2008 and to help build support in the community for renovation.
The city had to negotiate with Union Pacific Railroad, which owns the station, to secure longer leases and get plans approved by county, state and federal governments.
The city gained $2.07 million in federal funds distributed through IDOT and kicked in $450,000 from its capital fund. While renovating the exterior, the restoration firm found unforeseen problems including heavy wood beams that had rotted due to water leaks from the roof.
“When you peel back the layers on 116-year-old building, you are going to find some surprises,” said Mike Strong, assistant to the city manager and the city’s point person for the project. “There were some added costs we realized with the exterior work which took away some of the funding capability on the interior.”
The city had originally hoped to expand the restrooms, install a new tile floor and complete plumbing work toward fire sprinklers, among other projects. Secondarily, it would like to restore the interior woodwork and do some remodeling.
“Right now its renovation of the south tenant space, relocating and expanding the restrooms and adding fixtures,” Strong said. “That’s around $325,000 for construction, construction management and any contingencies.”
The Lake Forest Preservation Foundation, however, aims to raise money for other facets of the interior renovation including restoring the wainscoting, installing thinner drywall, refinishing the benches and replacing the flooring.
The foundation will celebrate its 40th anniversary with an open house at the train station, 701 N. McKinley, from 1 to 3 p.m. Nov. 19. The event will celebrate the completion of exterior work while kicking off the effort to raise money toward renovating the interior.
The train station was designed by Chicago architects and Lake Forest residents Charles S. Frosh and Alfred H. Granger, according to the website of the Lake Forest Preservation Foundation. It was constructed in 1900 and was the fourth station on the site, Miller said.
“It was the town center in a way that’s difficult to picture nowadays,” Miller said. “There were telephones in Lake Forest but they weren’t common. Kids would bicycle from the train station telegraph office with telegrams. The station was also the place for shipping, the equivalent of FedEx.”
Lake Forest was a popular weekend spot with the country club set at the time of the station’s construction. It was the biggest suburban station at the time it was built, Miller said.
“There was fox hunting, polo, golf and horse shows that drew 50,000 people to Lake Forest,” Miller said. “Lake Forest in that period was sort of the Versailles of Chicago.”
By the late 1970s, the station was in such poor shape that the Regional Transportation Authority proposed replacing it “with a more utilitarian structure.” The Lake Forest Preservation Foundation, which was started in 1976, raised more than $400,000 toward that renovation, according to the organization.
The station is a contributing structure to the Lake Forest National Register District.
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