361 E. Westminster: Home to an Array of Fellowship and Education

Making It Home
361 E. Westminster: Home to an Array of Fellowship and Education

Looking northeast toward 361 E. Westminster, c. 1880s.

Alfred Braun, shown at right, chauffeured for the Rumseys around 1910, residing in the second floor apartment of the carriage house. At that time he met his future wife, Gerda Petersen (second from left), who worked in the Rumsey household. Image courtesy of Paula Berghorn Polito.

Alfred Braun, shown at right, chauffeured for the Rumseys around 1910, residing in the second floor apartment of the carriage house. At that time he met his future wife, Gerda Petersen (second from left), who worked in the Rumsey household. Image courtesy of Paula Berghorn Polito.

361 E. Westminster, Lake Forest-Lake Bluff Historical Society museum, c. 2005.

361 E. Westminster, Lake Forest-Lake Bluff Historical Society museum, c. 2005.

Demolition of 361 E. Westminster, January 2018.

Demolition of 361 E. Westminster, January 2018.

When Dr. Charles Quinlan rebuilt his home at 404 East Deerpath in 1870 after a fire, he added a handsome outbuilding to the property, which at that time extended from Deerpath to Westminster along Depot Avenue (now McKinley Road). The solid brick carriage house matched the French Second Empire style of the main house, including the mansard roof.Through the early 1900s, this building provided shelter for The Evergreens’ carriages on the first floor, and for its chauffeurs in an apartment on the second floor. When subsequent owner Captain Israel Parsons Rumsey bought a car, it lived here too.
Because this property sat on the border of Lake Forest’s town center, it has held long appeal for developers. Finally in the 1920s the Baker family subdivided and sold off parcels. The carriage house was purchased in 1924 by Lake Forest Lodge No. 1026, without a “temple” of its own since its founding in 1919. The Masons remodeled the carriage house into a fellowship hall and opened the space to groups as well.The First Church of Christ Scientist used it for services and Sunday school in the 1930s. Mrs. Emma kept her dance studio here from 1933 to 1945; among her young pupils was likely her daughter Rose Mary, the future film star Joan Taylor. Young adults from CROYA drank pop and ate pizza here while planning events in the 1980s. During the renovation of City Hall, it was used it as temporary office and storage space by the City until the Historical Society took over in 1998.
Finally, in 2018 the story came to a close. The Historical Society moved to a new facility down the road and 361 E. Westminster was demolished to make room for new office buildings and parking.