Isabelle C. O'Keffee Elementary School
Aerial image of O'Keffee Elementary School, showing the original 1925 structure (left), the 1936 addition extending back from the north (foreground) end of original building, and the 1971 annex (right). Photo Captured from school website video
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.
Project originally submitted by Scott Newman on November 15, 2021.
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