"Everything we do focuses on that symbol of our barn," Pam Newton, Hawthorn Woods' chief operating officer, told the Daily Herald last November. "It's history and the residents love it."
That line is more literal than it sounds. The barn at 2 Lagoon Drive houses the village's administrative offices, its police department and its meeting space. It is also the village's community event center. On the Village of Hawthorn Woods fall calendar, the same address keeps coming up. It hosts the Friday movie, the symphony concerts, the pumpkin workshop, the craft fair and the trustees' meeting. In Hawthorn Woods, the main gathering place this fall is a room the village has kept looking like a working dairy barn for close to six decades.
What's Left on the Barn's Calendar
The fall season was set to start Saturday, October 17. That morning, volunteers were scheduled to meet at the Barn for an Adopt-A-Highway cleanup of Old McHenry Road between Lagoon Drive and Darlington Drive. That evening the Lake County Symphony Orchestra was scheduled to play "Autumn Serenade: An Evening of Vince Guaraldi Nostalgia" in the same room. Here is what remains, from the village's Fall 2026 Parks & Recreation guide and online calendar.
| Date | Event | Where | Time | Cost and notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fri, Oct 23 | Movie in the Barn: Monsters, Inc. | Village Hall Barn | Doors and craft 5:30 p.m., showtime 6:30 p.m. | Free, one free bag of popcorn per person |
| Sun, Oct 25 | Pumpkin Decorating Workshop, ages 3+ | Village Hall Barn | 10 to 11:30 a.m. | $20 residents, $25 nonresidents, code 4580 |
| Sat, Oct 31 | Trick-or-treating | Throughout the village | 4 to 8 p.m. | Village-set hours |
| Wed, Nov 11 | Senior Gathering, ages 55+ | Hawthorn Woods Country Club | Noon | Registration required |
| Sat, Nov 14 | Lake County Symphony Orchestra | Village Hall Barn | 5:30 p.m. | Tickets through the orchestra |
| Mon, Nov 23 | Village Board of Trustees meeting | Village Hall Barn | 5 p.m. | Public meeting |
| Sat, Nov 28 | Holiday Craft Fair | Village Hall Barn | 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. | Free admission and parking |
| Wed, Dec 9 | Senior Gathering, ages 55+ | Village Hall Barn | Noon | Most gatherings free |
| Sun, Dec 13 | Lake County Symphony Orchestra | Village Hall Barn | 3:30 p.m. | Tickets through the orchestra |
| Fri, Jan 15, 2027 | Movie in the Barn | Village Hall Barn | Doors 5:30 p.m., showtime 6:30 p.m. | Free |
| Sat, Feb 27, 2027 | Lake County Symphony Orchestra | Village Hall Barn | 5:30 p.m. | Tickets through the orchestra |
Nine of the eleven rows are in the Barn. Trick-or-treating covers the whole village, and the November senior lunch moves to the country club. Most of the village's own programs are free or need village registration. Concert tickets are the exception and go through lakecountysymphonyorchestra.com. The guide describes the orchestra as the only professional orchestra currently in Lake County. It was founded in 2004, its players come from as far as Milwaukee and Chicago, and part of its mission is to bring advanced students and community musicians onto its stage.
The holiday fair has its own page at vhw.org/CraftFair, where vendor details are posted ahead of November 28.
A Room That Changes Jobs by the Hour
What makes this schedule unusual is how the room switches between uses. The Board of Trustees meets at 5 p.m. on Monday, November 23. Five days later, at 10 a.m. Saturday, the same floor is full of craft vendors. The Daily Herald's photos show the inside of the main hall, where village meetings and community events share one open space with the original catwalks still running along the tops of the walls.
The parks guide lists the hall at 100 guests banquet-style or 175 meeting-style, with a kitchen that has a refrigerator/freezer, stove, oven, microwave and sink. At that size, a movie night, a symphony concert and a public meeting all fit in the same room without any of them feeling lost in it.
Why a Village Owns a Dairy Barn
The building is older than the village, and nobody agrees exactly how much older. According to the Daily Herald, Phil Gardner of the Ela Historical Society says it was built in 1898 for M.E. Davis, who owned 243 acres. The same article's photo captions call it roughly 145 years old and date it to the early 1880s. Either way, it was built in the late 19th century.
The property had been sold by 1936 and then sold again. Matt and Germaine Larson bought it, then known as the Forest Farm, in 1945, and broke ground for a road system in 1953 so homes could be built nearby. A few years later, a large home and apartment proposal would have added tens of thousands of residents to the area. Hawthorn Woods incorporated on March 10, 1958, to control its own future and keep a country atmosphere. In 1960 the Illinois Supreme Court ruled on an appeal in a way that upheld the zoning ordinances of Long Grove, Kildeer, Deer Park and Hawthorn Woods and ended that development plan.
In 1967 the young village bought the barn, at Old McHenry Road and Lagoon Drive, for $35,000. It has been modernized since then, but the tall open structure has been kept largely intact. Today it appears on the village logo. The Daily Herald calls the building "the embodiment of its 'Rural by Design' philosophy and purpose."
So the place where the village now gathers for movies and concerts is the same farm property where the roads that became Hawthorn Woods were first laid out.
What Keeping It a Barn Takes
The Daily Herald profile is honest about the trade-offs. Staff need lap blankets in winter. On humid summer days, a faint smell of dairy cows comes back. Mice, squirrels and woodpeckers all take an interest in the building.
"There are inconveniences but we feel privileged to keep it alive." Pam Newton, chief operating officer, to the Daily Herald
The old cedar siding had warped and opened holes that let animals into the walls. A first fix didn't work. The village's second approach, finished in mid-November 2025, replaced the cedar on the north and west sides with an engineered product made to look like the original and last much longer. The rest of the siding was planned as a second phase. The modern parts are kept low-key on purpose. Lighting and cameras are discreet, there are no electronic signs, and meeting agendas are still posted in a case near the entrance. At the entry to the administrative offices, a display of donated farm items includes a bottle of grain from 1958 and a sketch of the building.
"I just love what it represents, the history of our village," Mayor Dominick DiMaggio told the Daily Herald. "We definitely want to preserve it."
Booking the Barn for Your Own Gathering
The building is available to residents between village events, too. The Parks and Recreation Department rents the Village Hall Barn for birthday parties, anniversaries, showers, reunions and business meetings, and calls it a "rustic, yet elegant" setting. Rentals must be booked at least two weeks in advance. Details are at vhw.org/rentals, or call the department at (847) 847-3503.
If the Barn is booked or too big, the village has other options. The Community Room at the Aquatic Center, 94 Midlothian Road, holds 60 banquet-style or 100 meeting-style. Gazebos and pavilions at Heritage Oaks Park and Community Park can be rented for outdoor events. The Aquatic Center is also where the village's family art workshops meet, including the Winter Family Art Workshop on Saturday, December 12, from noon to 2 p.m., taught by Jenna Downing of Adrift & Found.
The next time the Barn fills up is Friday, October 23, when the doors open at 5:30 p.m. for a craft and popcorn before Monsters, Inc. starts at 6:30.
Hawthorn Woods works hard to keep its history in use, and Morrison Home Team brings the same care to homes here. If you're wondering how your property compares to others in a village built on "Rural by Design," we're happy to prepare a valuation grounded in this market. Request Your Free Home Valuation.