Our History The story of the Union Church is historically fascinating as this church precedes the founding of many of our nearby communities. Long before the existence of Lake Bluff, an early pioneer who hailed from Rockland County, New York came to Illinois and named a small town Rockland, which was located on a crossroad between Chicago and Waukegan. The crossroads consisted of a military highway, Green Bay Road, and Rockland Road, which is now part of Route 176. There was a post office, an inn, a one room school, some log houses, a few farms, a train depot, and a brand new church. This "little brown church," called Rockland Union Church, originated in 1866, one year after the end of the Civil War, as part of an early ecumenical movement. These churches were found in small towns across America, appealiing to people from a variety of religious traditions as a chance to worship as a community. Visiting ministers from the recently founded Lake Forest College conducted services at the church on Sunday afternoons. The Methodist Camp Meeting Ground was organized near the bluffs of Lake Michigan in 1875. By then, the community of Rockland had been assimilated into Lake Bluff. In 1902, the Rockland Union Church building, after 36 years in existence, was condemned and torn down to make way for expansion of the North Shore Electric Railway between Rondout and Libertyville. Since the original Union Church building no longer existeed, the church congregation met in members' homes until 1906, when they began meeting at the Lake Bluff Country Club, then located at Center Avenue and Moffett Road. By 1912, the members of the Ladies Guild had collected enough money to purchase land formerly owned by the Lake Bluff Camp Meeting Association for the princely sum of $2,500. However, the advent of World War 1 and the absence of a pastor put the congregation's plans on hold. Finally, in 1920, th church was formally organized and chartered as the Union Church of Lake Bluff. The new pastor, Nelson Hall, obtained a building from the Great Lakes Naval Base and had it moved and erected on the site where the church stands today. In 1964, the Board of Trustees of the Union Church of Lake Bluff voted to raze the old building and construct a new church. In 1965, the current building was completed. Thanks to the efforts of many the church still stands, mortgage and debt free.