Lake Bluff Walking Tour - Uptown: All Around the Town

Lake Bluff, IL – The Lake Bluff History Museum kicks off its popular series of three docent-led walking tours in east Lake Bluff on May 19. Each tour provides a unique look into the Village’s past. The first tour in the series, Uptown, All Around the Town, takes place Sunday May 19 and covers the Lake Bluff commercial district and surrounding area. Tours depart from the Lake Bluff History Museum starting at 1 pm, 1:15 pm and 1:30 pm and run about 90 minutes. Tickets are available at lakebluffhistory.org/events.

The May 19 tour will explore Lake Bluff’s Commercial District, an area formally recognized as a National Historic District in 2007, and it will show how businesses serving residents’ needs evolved over time. The buildings in this district include the Train Station, Village Green, Be Market, Sankiewicz Building, Post Office Block, Griffith Building and Village Hall. The tour proceeds north along the Sheridan Road corridor and east on North Avenue to incorporate some history of adjacent areas.

The July 14 and September 15 tours, Camp Meeting Cottages and Country Houses and Camp Meetings, Chautauquas, Artists and Anarchists, respectively, cover the founding of the Lake Bluff Camp Meeting Association in 1875 and continuing into the early 1900s when Lake Bluff was a destination attracting an eclectic mix of writers, poets, musicians, artists and anarchists.

Tickets cost $10 per tour with payment made at the door the day of the walk. Reservations are requested to guarantee a spot and can be made online at lakebluffhistory.org/events. Participants are asked to arrive at the museum, 127 E. Scranton Avenue in Lake Bluff, 10 minutes before the start of the tour.

Lake Bluff History Museum is more than a museum! The organization researches, preserves and shares area history through a variety of activities and events, including programs like these tours. Museum displays tell stories of Lake Bluff’s past, and museum archives provide individuals with access to documents, records, photographs and other materials preserved in the archives. For additional information visit lakebluffhistory.org or call 847 482-1571.