Founded in 1857 as Lind University by a group of Presbyterian ministers, the college has been coeducational since 1876 and an undergraduate-focused liberal arts institution since 1903.

Lake Forest College was founded in 1857 by Reverend Robert W. Patterson as a Presbyterian alternative to the Methodist Northwestern University in Evanston.

They hired St. Louis landscape architect Almerin Hotchkiss to design the town of Lake Forest with a university park at its center.

Hotchkiss used the area's wooded ravines and forest as guidelines to plat a park-like, curvilinear layout for the town.

In 1869 Ferry Hall, a girls' preparatory school and junior college, opened as a division of the university led by Fannie Ruth Robinson.

In 1876 Mary Eveline Smith Farwell started Lake Forest College, a coeducational division of the university, under the leadership of the Reverend Patterson.

The Reverend James Gore King McClure arrived in Lake Forest in 1881 as the pastor of the Presbyterian Church.

[1] During this time, the college's theater group, the Garrick Players, the yearbook, and student newspaper, The Stentor, were all formed.

Following World War II, the college experienced further growth, taking control of what is now South Campus and constructing the Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse.

[26] Located 30 miles (48 km) north of Chicago, Lake Forest College is roughly an hour's commute from the city.

The Metra rail line, located in downtown Lake Forest, is a 15-minute walk from campus, where trains run approximately 25 times per day.

Outside of collegiate athletics, the campus is home to the original Halas Hall, the practice and front office facility for the NFL's Chicago Bears from 1977 until 1997.