The Scene of The Crime

     In 1865 the Civil War was winding down, Chicago's meatpacking business was heating up, and there were a bevy of young and impressionable minds just waiting to be shaped, and their parents demanded only the best in education for their little darlings.  Into this picture steps Edward S. Waters, a graduate of Harvard.  To assure the fine education of Chicago's future, he established a school that would mold the boys of Chicago into products ready-made for enrollment in the finest universities that the East Coast had to offer.  Fittingly, Waters' venture was named the Harvard School for Boys.

     Originally located on the corner of Congress and Wabash, the school ultimately moved to the 4700 block of Ellis Avenue, where it absorbed the Princeton-Yale School and the men from the South Side Academy.  Much like its neighbor the University of Chicago, Harvard quickly became distinguished as the best possible place to get an education, and the enrollment records read like a who's who of powerful Chicago surnames: Armour, Field, Walgreen, Drake, and Burnham, to name just a few.

     As it was such a bastion of the young and affluent, it makes sense that the school also had a heavy sports legacy.  Some highlights include sending a track and field athlete to the 1904 Olympic Games, and establishing golf as an interscholastic sport in the early 20th Century.  However, the school fell victim to changing times and declining enrollments, and its doors were permanently shuttered in 1962 after 97 years of helping to educate some of Chicago's best and brightest.


     Post-script:  I know my choices for blog entries can be extremely eclectic, but this time there is a method to my madness.  Aren't you guys even the tiniest bit curious why I just did an entry about a Boys School that hasn't seen a single student pass through its doors in 54 years?  And just what in the world is going on with that title?  Rest easy dear readers, for all will be revealed...on Wednesday.  That's right, I'm making you wait 5 WHOLE DAYS to find out the rest of the story.  So go ahead, enjoy your weekend, and then come back here on Wednesday to get the full reveal.