Let us help you bring your vision to life with flexible spaces, lodging, and support tailored to your group’s needs.
Let us help you bring your vision to life with flexible spaces, lodging, and support tailored to your group’s needs.
Every story has a beginning. Ours started with a storm that led Jessie and Victor Lawson to these grounds. Explore our history and see how we’ve grown, evolved, and made an impact along the way.
The history of Green Lake Conference Center begins with the Winnebago Indians, the first people known to walk these grounds. By the early 1800s, up to 500 members of the tribe camped around the lake, which they believed was home to the Water Spirit. Visiting Green Lake was a sacred journey that each Winnebago was expected to make once in their lifetime. Their reverence for the natural beauty of this place laid the foundation for its spiritual significance.
In the mid-1800s, pioneer settlers like Chris Briswold began building a life on what is now the conference center’s property. In 1888, Jessie Lawson and her husband Victor, a Chicago newspaper publisher, discovered the land in a moment of unexpected grace. While boating on Green Lake, a storm forced them to seek shelter at Lone Tree Point. It was there that Jessie fell in love with the rolling hills, the quiet woods, and the open shoreline. She led the transformation of the property into a grand country estate called Lone Tree Farm, overseeing the construction of roads, gardens, cottages, a boat house, water towers, and what was then the largest barn in Wisconsin.
Among the many historic sites on grounds, the Lawson’s boat, No Hurry (1905) is one of the most interesting. There were only three made by the Electric Launch Company it was operated by two electric motors powered by 140 batteries. The other two boats were sold to Thomas Edison and Czar of Russia. It was purchased and returned to Green Lake Conference Center in 1995 for permanent display and is in a state of ongoing restoration. The Boat House (1910) was built to accommodate the Lawson’s boat. The design was inspired by one Jessie saw in Switzerland, and the green tile on the roof came from Italy.
Another historic structure is Judson Tower. The large water tower (1908) dominated the landscape and is now named in honor of pioneer Baptist missionaries Ann & Adoniram Judson. Its observation platform is 140 feet above the lake. Its 75,000-gallon tank was filled from a 400-foot well near the boat house. Water from the towers irrigated fields and roads with horse-drawn sprinklers. Kansas Baptist Youth organized a drive to place the lit cross that sits on top of the tower today as a beacon to our guests and local residents across the lake. Carillons play every hour.
After the Lawson era, the land changed hands and was developed into a luxury resort by the Stone Development Company. The Stone Company spent another $3 million developing a luxury gated resort in the late 1920s and early 1930s. They constructed what is now Roger Williams Inn (1930) with 81 guest rooms, a dining room, a bar, a casino, an outdoor swimming pool, and the Links golf course in magnificent Scottish links style. Walter Hagen was in the first foursome to play the new course. Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson, Sam Snead, and Vince Lombardi have also played the Links. Twenty-five fine homes were built as well.
The effects of the Great Depression and World War II gas rationing forced the project to end, and the property stood in limbo until the early 1940s. In 1943, Baptist leader Dr. Luther Wesley Smith saw the potential for something greater. By the end of the year, he had enlisted the aid of James L. Kraft of Kraft Foods, Inc., as well as leaders of the denomination. Lawsonia, valued at $11 million, was purchased for $300,000 in December 1943.
Baptist youth held the first conference in June 1944. A dozen other conferences followed in the first season and the slogan “For a Closer Walk with God” was adopted. The conference center became a key meeting place for great Baptist leaders.
From June until October 1944, the U.S. Government rented William Carey Barn by the front gates and some cottages as a temporary camp for German prisoners of war. Approximately 400 POWs were housed here and worked at nearby canning factories.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke at Green Lake on July 23, 1956. His address was titled “Non-aggression Procedures to Inter-racial Harmony” as he began to articulate this new way to resist racial injustice in the midst of the Montgomery bus boycott. He also spoke at the National Missions Conference at Green Lake in 1957.
Green Lake Conference Center has welcomed guests from across the country for over 80 years, serving as a place where people connect deeply with God and with each other. Today, the Center continues to grow through facility improvements, innovative ministry programs, and partnerships with churches, schools, and nonprofits. The mission remains the same: to provide a special Christian environment of hospitality, equipping, renewal, networking, and stewardship that helps people discover God’s better version of themselves and their world.
We are rooted in faith and fueled by people who believe in transformation. Learn how we carry forward a legacy of Christian hospitality and purpose.
Green Lake Conference Center is a Christ-centered environment where groups are equipped, inspired, and renewed for a closer walk with God.
See the wide range of events we host so you can get connected and bring your group to Green Lake Conference Center.
