Lake Forest Academy (also known as LFA) is a co-educational college preparatory school for boarding and day students in grades 9 through 12.

[10] LFA's first principal—Samuel F. Miller—had been one of the civil engineers who helped build the railway, as well as a founder of the Presbyterian Church in town.

[14] In the years prior to the Civil War, the student body received military training from the eccentric Elmer Ellsworth.

Lake Forest College was a third component of the original founders' design and opened its doors later although it uses the academy's founding date as its own.

"[19] In 1948, Lake Forest Academy moved its campus to where it is currently located, the large former estate of Chicago meat baron J. Ogden Armour.

[20] At the celebration of the school's centennial in 1957, head of school Harold H. Corbin Jr declared, "The City of Lake Forest, born in an educational dream, should never allow itself to forget that in one vital sense it is a manufacturing town--not merely residential--and its sole demonstrable product is education.

"[21] The poet Robert Frost and Princeton president Harold Dodds also visited campus and gave speeches during the festivities.

A headmaster's residence was built on campus and named for General Robert E. Wood, the business tycoon whose advocacy for America First before World War II turned into a penchant for Joseph McCarthy in the postwar period.

There are 30 plus buildings on campus, including Reid Hall (formerly the estate of Chicago meat entrepreneur J. Ogden Armour), Corbin Academic Center, Hutchinson Commons, the Student Union (which houses the dining hall), five dormitories and several faculty housing buildings.

[24] LFA has a variety of athletic facilities, including the David O. MacKenzie '50 Ice Arena, a swimming pool, the Glore Memorial Gymnasium, the James P. Fitzsimmons Athletic Wing, the Crown Fitness & Wellness Center, tennis courts, all-weather track (new as of 2005), and five full-sized playing fields for football, field hockey, and soccer.

Atlass is the newest boys' dormitory, and located in the center of campus, it is closest to the academic buildings and dining hall.

In addition to generously sized rooms and new furniture, Atlass also sports a comfortable lounge area with a television, sofas, and pool table.

Atlass is a two-story building that houses 70 boys and four faculty members in apartments on either north or south end of the dorm.

Upon the academy's relocation to its current physical plant in 1948, the Board of Trustees dedicated the building to Ezra J. Warner Jr., class of 1895.

activities such as bowling, curling, salsa dance, jogging, lacrosse, water polo, weightlifting, and yoga, as well as a winter/spring musical.

LFA has a very strong athletic tradition that began in 1859 when Elmer E. Ellsworth, a close friend of Abraham Lincoln who already had become well known in the leading eastern cities by organizing military units called Zouaves, would be hired to drill the students.

The academy's football tradition would be carried on by such legendary coaches as Clarence Herschberger and especially Ralph Jones whose teams during the 1920s stood among the finest in the entire country.

For eight years he would achieve great success in the Big Ten and had written the acknowledged standard work on scientific basketball playing.

[34] LFA is believed to be the only school with "Caxys" as a nickname, although a popular athletic cheer at Yale University uses lines from the same Aristophanes play.

At the beginning of each year every student, faculty member, and administrator gathers in the Formal Gardens and participates in the All-School Handshake.

Field Day also began at Ferry Hall, starting in the spring of 1903 with "classes competing in races, the high jump, and a five-pound shot put, among other events."

His pioneering instructional plan of a rotating class schedule received coverage in Time magazine in both 1930 and 1931 under headlines that employed a term of endearment for the headmaster that referenced both his size and a common nickname for Richard.

Former head of School Dr. John Strudwick mentions that "LFA prides itself on its small classes and its Advisory system which both promote a unique and productive relationship between faculty and students.

"[47] The campus has been used as a shooting location for several films, among them: Damien: Omen II, Ordinary People, The Babe, and The Package.