The History of Oak Park and River Forest High School covers the history of Oak Park and River Forest High School, located in Oak Park, Illinois, United States, from 1871 to the present.
History
Nineteenth century
Starting in 1871, high school students from Oak Park attended classes in an elementary school. The first class, which contained only three people, graduated in 1877. As early as 1875, there was discussion about constructing a high school in Oak Park.
In June 1889, the school board announced that a site on Lake Street between Euclid and East Avenues had been selected for the new high school. Construction began in the spring of 1890. The school was designed by the firm of Thomas & Rapp, and built for an initial cost of US$40,000. The school, Oak Park-Ridgeland High School, was opened for public inspection on the afternoon of 1 January 1892.
The building was designed for kindergarten and grades 5–12. Among the features of the building was a state-of-the-art ventilation system that changed the air in the entire building once every six minutes. The basement held industrial arts shops, and the third floor held the gymnasium, science labs, and cooking and sewing rooms.
The 15-member graduating class of 1894, grouped according to course work in "Classical", "Latin", or "Modern language", received a graduation address from John M. Coulter, then serving as president of Lake Forest University.
In 1899, the tuition charged to residents of River Forest and Maywood was raised, prompting the students from those towns to move their students to the recently completed Austin High School in Chicago.
1901–1920
By 1904, the towns decided a new high school building was needed. In December 1904, the location at East and Ontario Streets was selected by voters.
The original school site was sold in 1916 for $25,000.
A new building, designed to hold 800 students, was opened in 1907 in the school's current location; however, by 1908, the school was declared defective and required additional work, with the concrete floors specifically cited as being unable to support the full weight of potential people that might stand on it. The school eventually filed suit against the contractors.
For many years, students at the school had formed fraternities and sororities. In the wake of a student's near death during an initiation in 1907, the community's citizens began to ask for the secret organizations to be disbanded. In the summer of 1907, school officials formally informed parents of the school's opposition to these groups, and that parents should be wary about permitting students to join these groups. As school started in 1908, the school opted to require all students (unless parents were opposed) to sign an oath not to join any secret societies. With the pledges sent out, the secret societies were effectively banned at the school, though not without a fight. The adult sponsor of one fraternity (on whose property the fraternity's house was located) decided to defend the system. It soon became clear that the fight was between representatives of the "old guard" of Oak Park which favored the societies, and newer families who were against them. Even as the last sororities submitted to signing the oath, the fraternities held out hope that they and their parents would prevail. While continued existence of the fraternities was tolerated for a time, by early 1909, the last remaining members were expelled when they failed to comply with the oaths they had signed. After the last fraternity engaged the services of an attorney to defend themselves, the attorney informed the members and their families that the school was within its rights, leading the last holdouts to renounce their membership and rejoin the school community. Problems with secret societies continued sporadically into 1911, when students were again given the choice of renouncing membership in the groups or face expulsion. Nine students were ultimately expelled. Four of these boys applied to attend one of the public schools in Chicago, and were rejected. One of the nine students was eventually reinstated by a judge, who openly called these secret societies "enemies of the state and foes of our Christian civilization". Expulsions over the offense continued in 1915, though with the added twist of several girls gaining the support of Mrs. Catherine Wright, the wife of architect Frank Lloyd Wright. In 1916, parents supportive of secret societies attempted to get elected to the school board, but failed when the leadership withdrew from the election.