Archives Closed Schools A-C: Columbian School

Other Name: Strother School; Eighteenth Street School

Last Address: 18th and Wilson Streets

Year Opened: 1893

Year Closed: 1923

The school began as the Eighteenth Street School, then was quickly renamed for the Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893.  The school was renamed the John C. Strother School in 1923 for a local attorney and school board member.  The school was built in a field in an area without streets or sewers.  Heavy rains would require teachers to use skiffs to reach the school.