Isabel C. O’Keeffe Elementary School Addition – Chicago IL

City:
Chicago, IL

Site Type:
Education and Health, Schools

New Deal Agencies:
Public Works Funding, Public Works Administration (PWA)

Started:
1936

Completed:
1936

Designer:
John Charles Christensen

Quality of Information:
Very Good

Marked:
Unknown

Description

A Public Works Administration grant helped fund the construction of an addition to O’Keeffe Elementary School at 70th Street and South Merrill Avenue in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood. The two-story, nearly 10,000-square-foot addition was designed by Board of Education architect John Charles Christensen and provided eight new classrooms. The architectural style of the new addition was patterned after that of the existing school building and formed a short wing at the northern end of the original school building, which opened in 1925. Construction work on the addition began in April 1936 and was completed in time for the start of the 1936-37 school year. Another addition to the school was completed in 1971.

Source notes

Chicago Board of Education. Annual Reports. Chicago, IL: Chicago Board of Education, 1937-38.

Chicago Building Permits Digital Collection 1872-1954. University of Illinois-Chicago Library. https://researchguides.uic.edu/CBP

Chicago Public Schools. Facility Assessment Report: Isabelle C. O’Keeffe Elementary School. Last modified 9 December 2019. https://schoolreports.cps.edu/Assessment_PDF_Detail_2019/FAD_OKEEFFE_610103.pdf

Chicago Public Schools. “History.” O’Keeffe School of Excellence. Accessed 9 November 2021. https://www.okeeffesoe.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=376882&type=d

Wilson, Edward. “Public Schools of South Side Open Tomorrow.” Chicago Sunday Tribune, 13 September 1936, SW edition, 3:2.

Site originally submitted by Scott Newman on November 15, 2021.

Location Info


6940 South Merrill Avenue
Chicago, IL 60649
Cook County

Coordinates: 41.76877, -87.57309

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