North Elementary School’s Legacy Stretches Back More Than 130 Years

Today, it is a parking lot in Metropolitan Square. But for many years, it was the site of Des Plaines' first and primary school.

By 1874 Des Plaines had matured enough to build a more permanent four-room, two-story school with a basement at at River Road and Jefferson Street. Four prior schools predated North School, an impressive brick Italianate Gothic building, which stood from 1874 to 1955.

North School was the first real civic structure in the fledgling village, and was divided into a first primary room, second primary room, intermediate room for grades three to five, and grammar room for grades six to eight. In 1894 the school doubled in size with an addition, a duplicate of the earlier section of the school.

Earlier: , or .

In 1906, it was named North Division School as the community built its second school, .  followed in 1923.

While the school closed in 1952 as the current was built, it remained standing for several years and was used for different purposes, including summer classes for migrant farm workers of Mexican descent.

The building was then wrecked to make way for a municipal parking lot for commuters, and is now a parking lot between and in Metropolitan Square.

Des Plaines’ first schools and teacher

Des Plaines' public schools trace their roots back to 1837, not long after the first settlements. Farms were scattered and still fairly scarce, so the few students were gathered in a 10-by-12-foot converted cheese room on Socrates Rand's property, near River Road and Miner Street.

Harriet Rand, the first teacher, taught 10 to 15 pupils. Around the same time, another private school was held at the south end of town, in a room on the second floor of Luther Jefferson's home. Jefferson's homestead is now the Izaak Walton League on River Road.

Students would not have to endure the cheese room long. A one-room log school was erected at the same time north of Perry Street on the east side of River Road, near the present District 62 maintenance building.

Opening January 15, 1839, the school, paid for by subscription, more comfortably housed the subscribed students. The 1841 school class numbered 35 pupils, who began each day at 9 a.m. after walking distances as great as two to five miles — uphill, in the snow, no doubt.

This was replaced by a two-room frame township district school building in 1852, located on Pearson Street at River Road and Jefferson Street. In 1855 the subscription model, where students were enrolled per pupil and families who could not afford it were left out, was left behind in favor of a tax-supported public school, and North School was then built north of the old school. 

Find Patch on Facebook; click like.

Stay connected: Receive an email from Des Plaines Patch with headlines in the morning for free.