Hospital buys Country Squire property, plans site review
Some Grayslake officials hope at least a scenic portion of the venerable Country Squire restaurant property is preserved by its new owner, Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital.
Northwestern Lake Forest has an outpatient campus near routes 120 and 45 adjacent to the Country Squire tract. Northwestern Lake Forest and Country Squire closed the deal for the land Tuesday.
Country Squire’s ownership notified Grayslake village officials Thursday that the restaurant’s liquor license no longer will be needed. Assistant Village Manager Derek Soderholm said Country Squire would have to reapply for a liquor license if ownership decide to relaunch the eatery elsewhere in Grayslake.
Jane C. Griffin, the hospital’s vice president of marketing and physician services, said there are no immediate plans for the Country Squire site. She said the land was obtained as long-term investment to allow flexibility to meet the area’s future health care needs.
Country Squire opened as a restaurant in 1954 in the former mansion of retail scion Wesley Sears. Sears’ 17-home room home was built in 1938.
Grayslake village Trustee Shawn Vogel is among the officials who hope some part of the property’s history will be preserved by Northwestern Lake Forest. While sorry to see Country Squire close, he’s encouraged by the hospital’s interest in Grayslake.
“It’s the bittersweet,” Vogel said. “Something good will come of it.”
At the very least, Vogel said, he hopes Northwestern Lake Forest considers preserving Country Squire’s manicured grounds, which were known to boast at least 10,000 tulips and daffodils.
Griffin said Friday the hospital has a history of being environmentally conscious at its Lake Forest and Grayslake campus grounds. However, she added, it is too soon to say what will happen at the Country Squire site.
“Once we assess the property, we would know more about what we would do with the property and grounds,” Griffin said.
Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital’s Grayslake facility came through a state law enacted in 2008 that allows acute-care centers to take on non-trauma emergency patients.
In 2009, it was upgraded to a free-standing emergency center open 24 hours a day and allowed to accept ambulances. As the first such facility in Lake County, it meets the same occupancy, physical plan and construction requirements as hospital emergency rooms.