LunchTalks@CAF: Chicago’s Historic Schools

LunchTalks@CAF: Chicago’s Historic Schools

Julia S. Bachrach, Historian and Preservation Professional; Elizabeth A. Patterson, Historian and Preservation Consultant; Frances O’Cherony Archer, Local Historian and Blogger

Chicago’s public schools have remarkable architectural and social histories that have often been overlooked. Over the course of more than a century, a series of noteworthy architects, including Dwight H. Perkins, William Bryce Mundie, W. August Fiedler, and John J. Flanders, produced school buildings in a wide range of architectural styles, often reflecting the social and architectural innovations of their time. Historians, Julia S. Bachrach and Elizabeth A. Patterson, and preservation architect Bill Latoza began documenting Chicago’s historic schools almost a decade ago. The Graham Foundation for the Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts provided support to this project, which includes photography by James Iska and Brooke Collins. Since 2012 the team has also been collaborating with local historian and blogger Frances O’Cherony Archer to create the newly launched Chicago Historic Schools website. Join us for this presentation that will include architectural and social histories of individual schools as well as insights about how we constructed the website.