Lakeview School's History Kept Alive at Museum

This post was written by the Grayslake Historical Society.
 
Large foot-high aluminum-alloy letters that once identified the elementary school at the corner of Belvidere Road (Route 120) and Lake Street now on display in the Annex of the Grayslake Heritage Center and Museum will be put in storage when a major rejuvenation project of the Annex begins later this year.

The individual letters—L A K E V I E W   S C H O O L—are among the hundreds of artifacts in the Annex that trace and relate to the history of Grayslake. The Annex displays Wilbur, a retired Grayslake Fire Department fire engine; a turn-of-century hearse; a kerosene wagon that delivered the light-providing fuel to homes and businesses many years ago; an antique sled that Santa uses to have his picture taken with residents during his annual holiday visit; hundreds of tools; and a variety of old-fashioned agricultural equipment used in the past on Grayslake area farms.

These artifacts are owned and maintained by the Grayslake Historical Society.

The Annex will close later this year when work begins on the renovation project that will be funded by a $150,000 state grant obtained by the Village of Grayslake. All the artifacts will be moved from the Annex to storage areas when the work begins on a new lighting system and air conditioning installation. Also, the building will be insulated.

When the Annex project is complete, many of the items will be returned to the building and the Annex will be reopened with "a new look," said Charlotte Renehan, president of the Grayslake Historical Society. Planning for the "new look" Annex has begun and is continuing by members of the Grayslake Historical Society.

The Annex was built in 1997 by the Grayslake Historical Society behind the old museum on Hawley Street. When completed, the Annex was donated to the village which pays the utilities and maintains the building.

Lakeview School was closed in the spring of 2002. It was then leased to the Westlake Christian Academy for three years before it was sold to the Academy for $1.9 million. The Academy continues to use the building as a school. In a formal ceremony after the sale, the large letters, which had been removed from the front of the building, were given to Jean Korell, former principal of Lakeview School and a member of the Graysake Historical Society, who accepted them for the museum.

The history of Lakeview School began in 1951 when a contest was held to name the Grayslake Grade School. One suggestion, according to former superintendent Eugene Davis, was Belly Lake after Belvidere Road and Lake Street.

"With a very nice view of the lake available, the choice became quite obvious: Lakeview," wrote Davis in Memories of Lakeview School, a compilation of memories and recollections of the school, prepared by the Grayslake Historical Society.

It was called Grayslake Grade School until Woodview School was built.

Early history of the school  notes a school was built of logs in the 1850s at what is now Lake Street and Belvidere Road. It was later replaced in the 1960s by a one-room school  building. 

That building was moved in 1895 to Hawley Street where portions were used as the village hall and later the Grayslake Municipal Historical Museum. It was later remodeled and added onto and is now part of the Grayslake Heritage Center and Museum.

After this building, the second at the site, was moved to Hawley Street, a third building was built which still stands on the original site. There had been additions during the years and when the junior high, or middle school, opened in the fall of 1969, Lakeview School became a K-5 building.

The Class of 1969 was the last eighth grade class to graduate from Lakeview School.

The Grayslake Junior High School became the Grayslake Middle School in the 1992-93 school year.

After the upper grades were taught at the junior high, the various grade levels in Lakeview School changed several times until it closed as a public school in the spring of 2002.

The Lakeview School letters and other exhibits can be seen in the Annex until later this year when it will be closed for renovations. Hours at the museum, 164 Hawley St., Grayslake are noon to 4 p.m. Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and during the Farmers' Market on Wednesday evenings and during other downtown Grayslake events.

—Contributed by the Grayslake Historical Society.