50 Years at Gorton

Both Gorton Center and the Preservation Foundation are products of the national Bicentennial era re-appreciation of community conservation heritage. In 1971-72 Brooks and Jackie Smith led the crusade to re-purpose seventy-year-old Gorton School, designed incrementally by important architects including Howard Van Doren Shaw and Stanley D. Anderson. By 1972 the new Historical Society, predecessor of the History Center, formed a preservation committee, and by 1976 this emerged as an independent Preservation Foundation for Lake Forest, by ca. 1999 a tenant of Gorton Center. Since the 1970s and turn of the century, local heritage conservation, Gorton, and the Foundation have evolved together as partners and supporters of mutual interests.

By the late 1990s, both the Senior Center and Historical Society had outgrown their space and moved out, the Senior Center anchoring the new Grove campus in south central Lake Forest. The Society too, has morphed into today’s thriving nearby History Center. The Preservation Foundation moved in, participating in Gorton’s major adaptive reuse renovation of ca. 2000 and conferring a Preservation Award on Gorton in 2002. Over time, the compatible Stuart Room was added, a regular venue for Preservation programs and other gatherings, and Anderson’s 1930s east wing theater had its major makeover as the John & Nancy Hughes Theater in the 2010s. City-partnered Gorton not only has been an active community center for over half a century, it has also spawned offspring, in addition to the Grove campus – the dynamic Elawa Farm community center in northwest Lake Forest.

The Preservation Foundation is proud to share in the Gorton’s vital heritage. In many respects, the story of the Gorton Center represents Lake Forest at its best While many communities have only recently discovered the attractiveness and benefits of adaptive reuse of existing warehouses, municiplal buildings, schools and churches, Lake Forest has been doing it for over 50 years. It is one of the reasons that Lake Forest has such a rich and unique architectural history and character. As Lake Forest considers further development in the Historic Business District, Gorton stands as a shining example of how to repurpose our heritage structures for the next generation.