In 1897, Shaw bought a one-third share of a farm on Green Bay Road in Lake Forest. Lake Forest had been a rural community to the north of Chicago, but was recently becoming a retreat site for the wealthy following the completion of the Onwentsia Club in 1895. Shaw built a house for his family on the farm, and built houses for Dr. William E. Casselberry and Dr. Nathan Smith Davis, Jr., the other two owners of the property. These houses exhibited Shaw's first forays into the Arts and Crafts Movement. Shaw's house, Ragdale, is today considered one of the best examples of Arts and Crafts architecture and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Shaw became interested in the movement after holding a joint exhibition for Chicago architecture and Arts and Crafts designers at the Art Institute of Chicago. Although the movement is characterized by designs from all over the world, Shaw focused on American and English styles. Shaw would meet with other Arts and Crafts architects, including Frank Lloyd Wright, in a lunch group known as The Eighteen, an early version of the Prairie School.