Morgan Park High School

Morgan Park High School is a 4-year public high school and middle school located in the Morgan Park neighborhood on the far south side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Opened in 1916, Morgan Park is a part of the Chicago Public Schools district. Morgan Park is located at the intersection of 111th Street and Vincennes Avenue. History Illinois law required children up to age 14 to attend school and the Village of Morgan Park had established several grammar schools by the late 1800s, but high school was considered a luxury, and it was usually left to the parents to send their children to private schools. Morgan Park had a private school, the Morgan Park Academy, with a four-year program that accepted both boys and girls as students. However, around 1897, the Academy decided to only accept boys, so a public high school, especially for the girls, was needed. Morgan Park High School opened its doors at its present location (1744 West Pryor Avenue) on January 17, 1916, but the high school was founded in 1902. Initially, space was rented in one of the grammar schools, the Western Avenue School that stood at about 110th St. and Western Ave., to use as classrooms for the first and second-year high school students. One or two teachers were employed, and the school started with 34 pupils. The third and fourth year students were sent to the high school in Blue Island. Between 1904 and 1906, the Arlington School was built at 110th Place and Western Ave., which was the first building used solely by the school. Because of tax issues, the building was legally owned by the grammar school and rented to the high school. This was the situation in 1910 when the village of Morgan Park seriously considered the issue of annexation to Chicago, which meant giving up independence as a separate suburb and becoming part of the city. Some residents were concerned that Morgan Park would lose the high school because it did not have its own land and building.