Our Lady of the Angels School (Illinois)

Our Lady of the Angels School was a Roman Catholic elementary and middle school located in the Humboldt Park section of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Some sources describe the school as "in Austin".[1]

Not to be confused with Our Lady of the Angels Academy.

The school was operated by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago and served as the parish school of the Our Lady of the Angels Church.

The school is best known for the fatal Our Lady of the Angels School fire, which occurred on December 1, 1958. The fire killed 92 students and 3 nuns and led to fire safety consciousness in private and public schools in the United States.

The first school building: history prior to the 1958 fire

Our Lady of the Angels was an elementary and middle school comprising kindergarten through eight grades. It was located at 909 North Avers Avenue in the Humboldt Park area on the West Side of Chicago, at the intersection of West Iowa Street. The school was located in a mostly Italian-American middle class community; the community held several second and third generation immigrant groups, including Italian Americans, Polish Americans, Irish Americans, and German Americans. Most members of the community were Roman Catholics.

The area was originally mostly Irish, but slowly became mostly Italian by 1958.[2] The facility was part of a large Roman Catholic parish which also consisted of a church, rectory, convent of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and two other parish halls. The school was the educational home to approximately 1,600 students.

In 1903, a two-story parish school was built, with four classrooms on the first floor and a chapel and convent on the second.[3] The school opened in September 1904, and in 1905, the second-floor chapel and convent was converted into two classrooms for the seventh and eighth grades. In 1910, a second two-story building was built north of the original structure, at 909 North Avers Avenue; this brick and timber-joist structure with a wooden interior was in the "Old English" architectural style, with a basement a half-story above the street, a church on the first floor and 12 classrooms on the first and second floors.[3][4] From 1939, a large new church seating more than 1100 parishioners was built together with a three-story brick rectory. When the new buildings were completed in April 1941, the church on the first floor of the 1910 building was converted into classrooms and a new chapel was built in its basement. In 1953, a two-story annex was built, connecting the 1910 building, which became the north wing of the school, with the older 1903 building, which became the south wing.[3]

Our Lady of the Angels School fire
Main article: Our Lady of the Angels School fire

On December 1, 1958, a fire in the north wing of the school killed 92 students and 3 nuns and injured numerous others. The remains of the north wing, together with the surviving sections of the school building, were demolished in 1959.

The new school building

In 1959–1960, a new Our Lady of the Angels School, designed by the Chicago architectural firm of Barry and Kay, was constructed according to the latest required fire safety standards; safety features included enclosed stairways, automatic sprinkler and alarm systems, and the use of fireproof coatings on doors instead of flammable paint and varnish.[5] A new address of 3814 West Iowa Street, located on the south side of the building, was used in order to distance the school from the fire.

Prior to the rebuilding, Our Lady of the Angels students attended various "replacement" schools to finish the school year while the new Our Lady of the Angels School was under construction.[6]

Catholic schools that took some Our Lady of the Angels students include:

  • Our Lady Help of Christians School (Since closed)
  • Our Lady of Grace School
  • St. Peter Canisius School (Since closed)

Chicago Public Schools campuses that took some Our Lady of the Angels students include:

  • Cameron School (Cameron has similar construction to the former Our Lady of Angels School)
  • John Hay Elementary School
  • Rezin Orr School (now Brian Piccolo Specialty School)

In September 1960, the modern three-story building with 34 classrooms plus a kindergarten opened.[5] Donations from around the world helped to fund the new construction. 1,560 students were enrolled at the new school that first year.[5]

Later history and enrollment decline

Enrollment at the new Our Lady of the Angels School remained steady at around 1,500 students until the end of the 1960s. In November 1968, a parish social hall or "fun building" was opened to host supervised after-school activities.[7] By 1971, demographic changes in the population of the city’s west side reduced the number of students, with enrollment falling to 878 and the school beginning to experience serious financial problems.[7] The demographic shifts led to an increasing number of Black students attending Our Lady of the Angels at the same time; the school did not experience any racism-related issues, however, and all of its students were then still Catholic.[7] Still, the cohesiveness of the parish weakened, with the number of registered families falling from 4,500 to 3,800.[7] In subsequent years, Catholic residents began to move to the northwest side of Chicago or to the western suburbs.

In 1989, the St. Francis of Assisi School merged into Our Lady of the Angels.[8] In 1990 the Our Lady of the Angels church merged into the St. Francis of Assisi Church (at 932 North Kostner). The Our Lady of the Angels parish buildings closed as the parish staff moved to the Francis of Assisi Church location. By the 40th anniversary of the school fire, Our Lady of the Angels mostly educated Black and Hispanic children from preschool to 8th grade, and had a severely diminished enrollment of 130 students, only about 26 of whom were Catholic.[9]

School closure

Due to the steep decline in the number of students, the Archdiocese of Chicago closed Our Lady of the Angels School once the Class of 1999 graduated.[10] The final graduating class dedicated a historic marker and fire memorial within the school. Due to the conflict between church and state property, this religious statue and pedestal have since been removed to the Holy Family Church.

At first the Nuestra America Charter High School opened in the former Our Lady of the Angels building. Nuestra America closed in 2002. The building was subsequently leased to Galapagos Charter School until it also closed in June 2016, citing financial pressures.[11]

Notes
  1. Bob Wiedric (1 Dec 1983). "Memories stay forever - Our Lady of Angels fire survivor". Our Lady of the Angels Fire. Retrieved 2012-09-16.
  2. Suellen Hoy (December 2, 1958). "Stunned with Sorrow" (PDF). Chicago History. Retrieved 2012-09-16.
  3. Cowan & Kuenster 1996, p. 11-12.
  4. Richard J. H. Johnston (December 1, 1958). "90 PERISH IN CHICAGO SCHOOL FIRE; 3 NUNS ARE VICTIMS; SCORES HURT; PUPILS LEAP OUT WINDOWS IN PANIC". Our Lady of the Angels Fire. Retrieved 2012-09-16.
  5. Franke, Jeanne (November 28, 1960). "2d Anniversary Nears in Tragic School Fire". Chicago Tribune. p. 59. Retrieved July 9, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. "Today". Our Lady of the Angels Fire. Retrieved 2012-09-16.
  7. Burns, Kathleen (February 14, 1971). "Angels School Appeals for Funds to Stay Open". Chicago Tribune. p. 73. Retrieved July 9, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. Paul Simons. "Closed School History: 1984 – 2004" (PDF). Illinois Loop. Retrieved 2012-09-16.
  9. Deardorff, Julie (December 2, 1998). "Masses remember school fire victims". Chicago Tribune. p. 228.
  10. "THREE CATHOLIC SCHOOLS WILL CLOSE; FOUR WILL CONSOLIDATE". Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago. Archived from the original on May 8, 1999. Retrieved 2012-09-16.
  11. Associated Press (20 June 2016). "Chicago charter school closes, CEO cites budget impasse". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 24 September 2016.

References
  • Cowan, David; Kuenster, John (1996), To Sleep with the Angels: the story of a fire, Ivan R. Dee Press, ISBN 1-56663-102-5

41.8975°N 87.7221°W / 41.8975; -87.7221

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