Björklunden* vid Sjön (Birch Forest by the Water) is a 425-acre estate on the Lake Michigan shore just south of Baileys Harbor in Door County, Wisconsin. A place of great beauty and serenity, the estate was bequeathed to Lawrence University in 1963 by Donald and Winifred Boynton of Highland Park, Illinois. Since 1980, Lawrence has offered a series of adult-education seminars at Björklunden, interrupted only by a 1993 fire that destroyed the estate’s main lodge. In 1996, construction was completed on a new and larger facility, and the Björklunden seminars resumed.
Following the 2007 expansion project, the splendid two-story, 37,000-square-foot lodge contains a great room, multi-purpose and seminar rooms, dining room and kitchen, as well as 22 guest rooms. There are two lakeside decks, a second-story observation deck, an elevator and a computer lab. The entire facility has wireless Internet access and plenty of parking.
This magnificent, year-round facility also allows Lawrence University’s mission as an undergraduate liberal arts college and conservatory of music to extend to Björklunden through a popular series of weekend student-faculty seminars which have been running since 1996.
Winifred Boynton captured the enduring spirit of Björklunden when she said of her beloved summer home: “Far removed from confusion and aggression, it offers a sanctuary for all.”
* pronounced "Bee-YORK-lun-den."
