DESIGN ENTHUSIASTS REJOICE

The Lake Forest Infant Welfare Showhouse will open its doors to the public on Monday, July 13th. The Showhouse & Gardens is a biennial event and is recognized as one of the top showhouses in the country. More than 30 interior designers have taken on rooms in the historic Lake Forest home designed in 1906 by Frost and Granger and renovated by Stanley Anderson in the 1920s. Private guided tours of up to 8 people will occur from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in 30-minute intervals. The showhouse will be open 7 days a week, from Monday, July 13 to Sunday, August 9.

Award-winning interior designer, tastemaker, design blogger, and Honorary Event Chair Paloma Contreras will create a virtual presentation, “Embracing Your Signature Style.” Tickets to visit the showhouse in person as well as a link to view Paloma’s virtual presentation will be for sale, and guests will have the option to purchase a personalized book, Dream, Design, Live from Contreras’s shop. “I’ve long been very aware of how special Lake Forest is,” she says. “Lake Forest is a city with a true reverence for its architectural past.”

Event co-chairs, Chrissy Davis, Jen Horan, Sarah Georgi, and Jennifer Mower are grateful to all of the interior designers and landscape architects as well as the talented individuals working for them who have been dedicated, supportive, and positive through this extremely challenging time.

Proceeds from the showhouse benefit the Angel Harvey Family Health Center of the Infant Welfare Society of Chicago, which is celebrating more than 108 years of providing healthcare to Chicago’s medically underserved. To purchase tickets, make a donation, or for more information, visit lakeforestshowhouse.com.

WALK THE BLUFF

THE LAKE BLUFF History Museum and Lake Bluff 125 Committee has launched the Lake Bluff Walking Tours app for smart phones and tablets. Produced by Museum Board Members Steve Kraus and Mark Dewart, and local resident Dan Huston, it includes many period photographs and offers a modern, digital expansion of the Lake Bluff History Museum’s popular docent-led tours. This new app also provides digital tours of the village’s most iconic and historically significant buildings and neighborhoods. It was created to honor and celebrate the 125th anniversary of Lake Bluff ’s incorporation as a village, which took place in September 1895.

The first iteration of the app includes two tours narrated by Lake Bluff voice-over talents Lise Dominique and Walt Sloan. The first covers the Uptown Commercial District, the center of commercial activity in the Village from the 1880s to the 2020s. This tour takes walkers through the Scranton Avenue business community and nearby neighborhoods, and includes the area designated a National Register Historic District. The second tour guides users through the Lake Bluff Camp Meeting Grounds. From 1875 to 1900, the Lake Bluff Camp Meeting Association sponsored summer religious and social events on their grounds in east Lake Bluff, and the tour takes walkers through the neighborhoods established during this era.

The Lake Bluff Walking Tours app (logo by Hillary Spencer for the Lake Bluff History Museum) is sponsored by Abbott, with content and production by the Lake Bluff History Museum. It can be downloaded at no cost from the Apple App Store and Google Play. For more information, visit lakebluffhistory.org.