Donor Intends To Give Barat Campus To Woodlands Academy

campus is about to become much bigger.

A potential anonymous donor indicated Thursday that the former Barat College campus would be purchased and then donated to , according to Gerald Grossman, the Lake Forest school's head of school. The properties are adjacent at the corner of Westleigh and Sheridan roads.

“When we heard we were elated, just elated,” Grossman said. “When a person is so generous and chooses to be anonymous it is humbling for us." 

Grossman has appointed a task force to consider uses for the property, which still contain the Barat buildings. 

“They’ll be looking at very big picture items, educational items,” Grossman said. “They will follow our educational mission.”

The donation would reunite the Barat and Woodlands campuses for the first time in 60 years. Originally founded in 1858 as the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Chicago, the school moved to its Lake Forest campus in 1904, according to the Woodlands’ website.

At that time, the institution was a boarding school for elementary and secondary students. In 1918, the Order of the Sacred Heart established Barat College on the campus. All students attended classes in the same building.

In 1961, a separate facility was built on the east 12 acres of the campus to form today’s . In 2001, Barat was purchased by DePaul University and became one of the Chicago institution’s 11 area campuses.

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Stay tuned to Lake Forest-Lake Bluff Patch for updates to this story.