Following Tremain's departure in 1947, the school slipped into financially hard times. Enrollment, which had been filled to capacity during the World War II, dropped off significantly; though some "suggested the school needed to reestablish its reputation through public relations and advertising," new headmistress Frances Wallace "stubbornly refused to try" these avenues. Ferry Hall's trustees stepped in and organized a major capital campaign that was intended to retire the mortgage still owed to Lake Forest College, eventually succeeding in the early 1950s. The centennial celebration of Ferry Hall in 1969 included such figures as Maria Tallchief and Gwendolyn Brooks. In the 1970s, headmaster John A. Bird began working with Lake Forest Academy to achieve coeducation: the schools had always been considered sister schools and, in recent years, had been offering opportunities to students of both schools. In the spring of 1974, the last class graduated from Ferry Hall. In the fall, Ferry Hall students joined Academy boys at their Mellody Farms campus and created the current coeducational institution Lake Forest Academy-Ferry Hall. Notable alumnae Jean Harlow, model and actress. Frances Perkins, (Ferry Hall chemistry teacher 1904-06; did not attend as a student.) First female U.S. Cabinet member U.S. Secretary of Labor under U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Florence R. Sabin (Primary Department student 1879-1882.) Trailblazer for women in medical sciences. Marion Coats (Ferry Hall Principal 1915-1918; did not attend as a student.) First president of Sarah Lawrence College. Doris Emrick Lee (1920–22), artist. Winifred Bonfils (1878-1880), newspaper journalist. Charlotte Armstrong Lewi (1921–22), author/mystery writer. Judy Baar Topinka, Illinois State Treasurer. Amy Hempel, author. Notes References External links Ferry Hall School history from the Lake Forest Academy official site Educational institutions established in 1869 Lake Forest, Illinois Defunct schools in Illinois Former high schools in Illinois 1869 establishments in Illinois