Dr. Goshgarian's Office On Display

A popular attraction at the is a peek into the medical office of Dr. Gaspar A. Goshgarian, circa the 1940s. The scene is a recreation of his medical office above the garage of his home at 21870 Washington St., on Highland Lake.

Visitors are drawn back to the medical practices of the era when Dr. Goshgarian was the only surgeon in Lake County. On display are original items from the office, including an examination table, a sterilization unit, a scale to weigh babies (he delivered thousands) and old-time medical equipment, medicine bottles, bandage kits and other unique equipment and supplies.

The office was the emergency room for the area, and local firemen from as far away as Fox Lake would bring patients to the medical office above the garage for emergency treatment. It was the era before rescue squads and sophisticated emergency vehicles.

Dr. Goshgarian was not only a respected physician in the area, but he also was a businessman and civic leader. During his lifetime in the Round Lake, Grayslake and Hainesville area, he helped establish a Lions Club, a bank, a school district and a movie theater. He also was instrumental in establishing a newspaper in the Round Lake area, the printer's ink never leaving his veins from his newspaper selling days as a kid on the corner of Washington and Genesee streets in Waukegan, where he lived his early life.

Dr. Goshgarian was born in Armenia in 1911, came to the United States between 6 months and 2 years of age with his mother through Ellis Island in New York. They came to Waukegan to live with his father who came to the United States earlier and was employed by the Washburn-Moen Steel Company in Waukegan.

His son Dave, in an earlier interview, noted his father learned to speak Armenian at home and Finnish on the streets of South Side Waukegan before he learned to speak English. He attended schools in Waukegan and studied biology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He graduated in 1936 from the medical school at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He completed his medical internship in Appleton, Wis. where he met his wife, Ann Van Hoof, a nurse. They married in 1938.

Dr. Goshgarian and his wife moved to Lake County and he worked at the Cook County Hospital for a few years before opening his medical office in Round Lake in 1938. He practiced there for more than 50 years. He started his medical practice in downtown Round Lake at the southeast corner of Cedar Lake Road and Route 134. The family lived above the Cedar Lake Road office until he purchased the house and property on the south shore of Highland Lake at 21870 Washington St.

He set up a home office above the garage. It became the emergency room for the area. He performed surgery at St. Therese Hospital in Waukegan.

Dr. Goshgarian retired in 1982. He died in March 2002 in his home. He was 90.

He was more than a well-respected and noted surgeon and physician. His other passions were golf and reading. His passion for golf began when he was 10 years old and caddying at Waukegan golf courses. Later, he was a champion golfer at Glen Flora Country Club in Waukegan and played in exhibitions with golfers Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Babe Didrikson Zaharias, Sam Sneed, Bryon Nelson, Gary Player and others.

Another son, Dr. Gerard, noted that his father started each day with 50 pushups — 25 of them on his fingertips. His reading passion led him to establish book collections at the Round Lake Area Public Library, which greatly increased the number of books at the library. He was appointed to the staff of St. Therese Hospital in 1937 and was president of the staff many times over the years into the 1960s. He was one of the busiest surgeons in Lake County.

As a civic leader in the community, Dr. Goshgarian helped establish the consolidated school system in Round Lake, the First State Bank of Round Lake, the Round Lake Bulletin newspaper and the Home Savings and Loan of Grayslake. Dr. Goshgarian helped establish and was present at the dedication of the first Chair of Armenian Studies in the United States, at Harvard University.

. It is open from noon to 4 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and during downtown Grayslake community events including the farmers' market on Saturdays.

- Contributed by the Grayslake Historical Society