"The most popular place in town": Monahan Chocolate Shop

Location: 662 North Western Avenue, Lake Forest

Making It Home Timeline
"The most popular place in town": Monahan Chocolate Shop

Monahan Chocolate Shop interior, 1910s. Edward Monahan is standing in front of the counter, with two patrons seated at right. Note the artwork on the walls.

Looking northwest along Western Avenue, c. 1910. Monahan Chocolate Shop is at left – you can see the shop name on the awning of the three-story, brick Anderson building.

Looking northwest along Western Avenue, c. 1910. Monahan Chocolate Shop is at left – you can see the shop name on the awning of the three-story, brick Anderson building.

Monahan Chocolate Shop interior, 1910s. Edward Monahan is behind the counter at right. Note the sign with the luncheon menu: customers could order eggs or sandwiches – including a cheese nut sandwich – and pair with hot coffee, hot chocolate or cold milk, to be topped off with ice cream, sherbet, pies or cakes for dessert.

Monahan Chocolate Shop interior, 1910s. Edward Monahan is behind the counter at right. Note the sign with the luncheon menu: customers could order eggs or sandwiches – including a cheese nut sandwich – and pair with hot coffee, hot chocolate or cold milk, to be topped off with ice cream, sherbet, pies or cakes for dessert.

Monahan Chocolate Shop interior, 1910s, showing the candy counter and soda fountain.

Monahan Chocolate Shop interior, 1910s, showing the candy counter and soda fountain.

Advertisement in the Lake Forester, 1925. Monahan’s offered dainty lunches, dinners for 75 cents (or $1.25 on Sundays) and an assortment of treats made of “only the purest materials.”

Advertisement in the Lake Forester, 1925. Monahan’s offered dainty lunches, dinners for 75 cents (or $1.25 on Sundays) and an assortment of treats made of “only the purest materials.”

 Edward J. Monahan opened the Monahan Chocolate Shop on Western Avenue in 1906, one of the first tenants in the newly completed Anderson Building. He drew on previous experience in the dairy industry to create a café with a soda fountain, serving hot sandwiches and pies for lunch.
Children stopped by for candy, and of course the homemade ice cream, which could also be delivered at no charge. A 1910 Lake Forester article called it “the most popular place in town.” The upper floor had a banquet hall for local groups – in 1911, the local Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) held their first meeting there.
The Monahans retired and sold the shop in 1920, and in following years it was operated by a succession of proprietors (Chaucer Westbrook, Edwin Burgess, and Richard Murrie). The Green Tea Pot took over in 1926 and converted it into a tea room.