Openlands Lakeshore Preserve - Recent History: 1888 to 1995

Between 1888 and 1993, Fort Sheridan served as a U.S Army post. Motivated by the labor strikes of 1877 and the Haymarket Riot in 1886, the Commercial Club of Chicago, a group of wealthy businessmen, supported the use of the nation’s army as a regional police force to protect property and quell worker uprisings—a plan backed by Philip H. Sheridan, a Civil War hero and commanding general.

The organization purchased the land in 1887 and donated it to the federal government with the hope that the gift would be used to create a military garrison near the city. Construction began at what was initially called Camp Highwood in the spring of 1888. Shortly thereafter, President Grover Cleveland named the post in honor of General Sheridan. (Fort Sheridan troops responded the Pullman strikes in 1894, the only time they were called upon to suppress labor unrest.)

Fort Sheridan became a mobilization, training and administrative center during the Spanish-American War and continued to serve this purpose through World War II. Many officers who would go on to become famous, including General George Patton and Jonathan Wainright, were stationed there. The 174th Military Police Battalion of the Leavenworth, Kansas, National Guard was stationed there in 1950, and, from 1953 to 1973, Fort Sheridan was the Cold War base for servicing and supplying all NIKE anti-missile systems in the upper Midwest. After 1973 the post again housed administrative and logistics support services.

Fort Sheridan was among the military bases scheduled for closure under the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Act of 1989 and closed in 1993. By 1995, Fort Sheridan's 714 acres were dispersed as follows:

• The U.S. Army retained 114 acres, which continue to serve as an Army Reserve base.
• The U.S. Navy purchased 185 acres from the Army for use as military housing and offices; the natural features of the Openlands Lakeshore Preserve are located on this property.
• The town of Fort Sheridan was created on 125 acres that were sold for development. There were ninety-four buildings, including sixty-four designed by the Chicago architectural firm of Holabird & Roche, built at Fort Sheridan between 1889 and 1910. Made of bricks molded and fired on-site using clay mined from the lakefront bluffs, these structures comprised troop barracks and officers' quarters. Today, the buildings make up a 110-acre historic district that was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1984.
• Of the remaining property, 259 acres were transferred to the Lake County Forest Preserve District at no cost, including 60 acres that fell within the National Historic Landmark District.

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