LFHS Named 'Most Beautiful Public High School' In Illinois

LAKE FOREST, IL — Lake Forest has a rich architectural history, with many of the region's most famous designers living and designing homes and businesses in the wealthy North Shore enclave. Several of the same names who drew up plans for Chicago's most iconic buildings — like Van Doren Shaw, Adler and Wright — also erected striking sites around the cities of Lake Forest and Lake Bluff, creating an architectural legacy that remains intact.

Lake Forest High School, which was just named as the "most beautiful" high school in the state by Architectural Digest, is part of that legacy. It was built in 1935 and designed by Lake Forest native Stanley D. Anderson, who built a total of 30 public and commercial buildings in the area including Lake Forest Hospital, according to a biography.

The original construction of the school was a Works Progress Administration project. It was "originally intended more for the children of the domestics and the local middle class," since most of the city's wealthy residents sent their children away for boarding school, according to a booklet chronicling the school's early history. Plus, it was intentionally designed to look like just another estate, "so as not to disturb its surroundings." (Get Patch real-time email alerts for the latest news for Lake Forest & Lake Bluff — or your Illinois community. And iPhone users: Check out Patch's new app.)

Architectural Digest agreed, saying the main building "looks more like a country manor than a public high school." (Take a look at Architectural Digest's complete list for each of the 50 states to see how Lake Forest compares.)

Anderson modeled the school after the East Coast's most elite prep schools. used "classic pediments and cornices" and created a "more relaxed 'Country Georgian' style with the use of Lannon stone in the central mass rather than the formal red brick and carved Bedford limestone," his biography notes.

And it's not the only recent aesthetic honor for the school. Last year, LFHS was named the eighth "most picturesque" high school campus in the country by Lawnstarter.

_{Top photo: Lake Forest High School (Courtesy LFHS)}