Weekly Chicago Times, March 2, 1858
To the Board of Education of the City of Chicago:
Gentlemen: Your committee to whom was referred the question of presenting to this Board appropriate names for our several Grammar Schools, have had the matter under consideration, and beg leave to Report:
That in the opinion of your Committee a better method than the one now in use for designating our several Grammar schools, should be at once adopted. With only the present number of schools, members of the Board, even, familiar as they are with the subject, often find it difficult to locate a particular school by its number; and as our schools must rapidly increase, the difficulty of recognition, and of retaining their locations in the memory. by their numbers, must be greatly augmented. But, by giving to each school some appropriate name, association comes to the aid of memory, and the location of every school is readily known and easily retained, not only by members of this Board, but by our citizens generally, when once its name is learned.
It has been the aim of your Committee to present such names for our several schools as should approve themselves to the minds of all. Some of them have a national character, known and honored everywhere; others were early and honorably connected with the first settlement of our city; others still have shown their appreciation of the value of our Public Schools, by giving, liberally, of their time, or their means, or both, to make them what they are now fast becoming—the ornament and pride of the city.
With there views, the Committee ask for the passage of the following resolution:
Resolved, That our several Grammar Schools be known, hereafter. by the following names, viz.:
All of which is respectively submitted.
The foregoing Report was accepted, and the accompanying Resolution adopted.
Weekly Chicago Times, March 11, 1858
Ridiculous.—The Board of Education at its last monthly meeting adopted a resolution, submitted by Mr. Haven, abolishing the numbers by which the several public schools in this city have been heretofore known, and substituting in lieu thereof the names of certain individuals. The following is the resolution:
Resolved, That our several grammar schools be known hereafter by the following names, viz.:
The only reason assigned for the change is, that members of the Board of Education can’t remember the location of the schools by their numbers, and therefore they desire to bring “association to the aid of (their short) memory,” by giving them appropriate names. We respectfully submit that they might have accomplished the object much more effectually than they have done. For instance, No. 1, which embraces a large number of Negro children among its pupils (intermingled promiscuously with white children), might have been called “Abolition Grammar School;” and No. 2, which embraces a much larger number of Negro children, might have been called “Amalgamation Grammar School.” There would be little danger of forgetting these names, among those who send their children to these mixed institutions, at any rate. Again, there is a school in the North Division, the principal of which, not long since, desired all the children under his charge to buy a copy of Greeley’s “Tribune Almanac”—this might be called the “White-Over-coat Grammar School,” a name which the most forgetful member of the Board of Education would be quite likely to remember.
To be serious, however, the new method of designating the public schools is nonsensical, and the reason assigned for the change is absurd. If the object really was that the location of the several schools might be more easily remembered, why not, call them by the names of the streets on which they are situated, instead of giving them the names of living individuals of whom and whose “associating” nine-tenths of the community are even more profoundly ignorant than members of the Board of Education appear to be of the location of the public schools of Chicago?
The system adopted is no help to the memory; but will be found to be more disadvantageous than otherwise. “Dearborn School” is not on Dearborn street, but on Madison street. We suppose it to have been named after General Nathaniel Dearborn, from whom Fort Dearborn, Dearborn street, Dearborn Park, the Dearborn House and divers other Dearborns received their cognomens. In order that there should be no mistake about the location of the school, from the number of places bearing the same name where it is not located, the board should at least have given it the whole name, “General Nathaniel Dearborn Grammar School.”
So of “Jones’ School.” Although Jones may be a very rare name, in the opinion of the Board of Education, it might prevent many awkward mistakes as to which Jones belongs the honor, had the words “Uncle Billy” been prefixed. The complexion of many of the pupils in this school might lead some people to suppose it was named alter a very different person.
“Scammon School” should be “Jonathan Young Scammon School,” in order that some forgetful member of the board may not suppose it to be located on Scammon street, or Scammon’s Addition; and “Kinzie School” would certainly have been better distinguished from Kinzie street (where it is not located) by the name of “Waubun.”
The same may be said of Franklin and Washington and Brown and Foster and Ogden schools, none of which are located on the streets bearing these names; and who knows what Franklin, what Washington, what Brown, what Foster and what Ogden it is designed to connect by “association” with these several institutions of learning? We insist that the next school-house erected should be called “Descon Bross Spoke School,” in order to carry out the plan and the real object the of persons with whom it originated.
PUBLIC DISTRICT SCHOOLS IN 1870
High School—Monroe street, between Halsted and Desplaines. 1856-
Dearborn School No. 1—On Madison, between State and Dearborn. 1845
Jones School No. 2—Corner of Clark and Harrison. 1846/1862
Scammon School No. 3—On Madison, between Halsted and Union. 1847
Kinzie School No. 4—Corner of Ohio and La Salle. 1846
Franklin School No. 5—Corner of Division and Sedgwick. 1851/1869
Washington School No. 6—Corner of Owen and Sangamon. 1851
Moseley School No. 7—Corner of Michigan Avenue and Monterey. 1855
Brown School No. 8—Corner of Warren and Wood. 1853
Foster School No. 9—On Union, near Twelfth. 1854
Ogden School No. 10—Corner of Chestnut and Wolcott. 1857
- Locations of the first ten Public Schools. Central High School is located next to No. 3 Scammon school.
1857
Newberry School No. 11—Corner of Orchard and Willow. 1858
Wells School No. 12—Corner of Reuben and Cornelia sts. 1858
Skinner School No. 13—Corner of Jackson and Aberdeen sts. 1859
Haven School—Wabash avenue, north of Sixteenth street. 1862-
Cottage Grove School—Douglas place, near Cottage Grove avenue.
Holden School—Corner of Deering and Thirty-first streets.
Holstein School—Courtland street, near Henshaw.
Dore School—Harrison street, east of Halsted. 1868
Carpenter School—Corner of Centre avenue and Second street.
Hayes School—Leavitt street, between Walnut and Fulton.
Clarke School—Ashland avenue, between Sampson and Leavitt. 1869
Colored School—Rented building, located corner of Fourth Avenue and Taylor street. June, 1863-April, 1865.
PUBLIC PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN 1870
Pearson Street Primary School—Pearson street, corner Market.
Elizabeth Street Primary School—Elizabeth street, corner Lake.
Rolling Mill Primary School—Ashland avenue, corner Wabansia avenue.
Walsh Street Primary School—Walsh street, corner John street
Mitchell Street Primary School—DeKoven street, near Desplaines. 1868
Elm Street Primary School—Rush street, corner of Elm.
Wentworth Avenue Primary School—Wentworth avenue, corner Twentieth street.
Blue Island Avenue Primary School—Blue sland avenue, near Western avenue.
North Branch Primary School—Sedgwick ct. sw. cor. Division.
Cicero Primary School—Warren avenue, fronting Railroad track.
Calumet Avenue Primary School—Congregational Church building, Calumet avenue, corner Twenty-sixth street.
LaSalle Street Primary School—Between LaSalle and Clark streets, north of North avenue.
Lincoln Street Primary School—Lincoln street, corner West Indiana.
Third Avenue Primary School—Between Third and Fourth avenues, near Twelfth street.
Chicago Orphan Asylum—789 Michigan av. 1853
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