A one-room schoolhouse was moved from Caldwell's Reserve in 1899 to the SE corner of 40th & Peterson, schools were badly needed in that district. P. S Peterson offered the land to CBofE very reasonably. Records show it stayed at that location until 1907, then no more (at least to present, this is ongoing).
In Caldwell's Reserve it was located on Leader Avenue south of Caldwell and was known as Forest Glen School, where it stood on a small lot donated to school use in 1857 by James or Joseph Fegan.
Once at 40th & Peterson it went through a few name changes, finally ca 1903 became Belding Branch 2. My hunch is, old school site is the bus turn-around.
I don't know if this fits with mysterious findings mentioned, but it is a documented part of the land history!
Anyone out there heard this before? Or picked up any usable info for Edgebrook Historic Society? Would like to hear . . .
[b]THanks for the post: 40th & Petersen doesn't sound right. Petersen runs east & west and so would 40th st. Do you mean 4000 w. petersen? That would make it Pulaski or Crawford.[/b]
Sorry if I'm way off base here, but I'd like to take a stab at this.
I seem to remember back a bunch of years ago that there was a little red "school house" at the north end of Edens Parkway, where it makes a sharp turn to the left and becomes Bryn Mawr avenue. Could this be the place in question? I know it hasn't been there in quite some time, but when I lived in Forest Glen 35 years ago it was definitely there. I may be very wrong, but memory tells me that it was called "Forest Glen School".
I am thinking EHSresearch is talking about 4000 West Peterson. There is a CTA bus turn around there. Leader and Caldwell is just west of this location.
Interesting topic! Below is a link to a map from 1897 which shows the location of the Forest Glen Branch School on Caldwell. You'll need to zoom in on the far NW area on the map to see it more clearly. I have looked at other maps in the U. of C. Collection from the early 1900's and I don't find any school located at Peterson and 40th (now Pulaski). All I can find at that location is a Peterson's Nursery on some maps and that would, most likely, correspond with the story of Mr. Peterson selling some of his land to the CBofE. I'll dig around a bit more and see if I can find anything more on this.
[url=http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/collections/maps/chi1890/G4104-C6E68-1897-B536-NW.html]1897 Map - U of C Collections[/url]
EHSresearch, I believe your hunch about the location is correct. In The Directory of The Public Schools of the City of Chicago 1905 - 1906 (free in Google Books) it lists Belding Branch 2 located at "N. Fortieth av., 1/4 block south of Peterson av.". So the school was located either where the bus turn around is now or perhaps just a bit south of there.
Hey, I just got back and I'm happy to see responses! Yes, Pulaski was 40th, was Crawford, now Pulaski.
there was a "Little Red Schoolhouse" in Forest Glen in 1900s but our Forest Glen School came way before. Founded in 1846 per CHM records. Then located in Caldwell's Reserve until 1899 when CBoE moved it to Bowmanville District where classrooms were badly needed, and by this time new schools were coming to Edgebrook area. It stayed at Pulaski/Peterson until 1907. After a few district changes it was known as Branch 2 of Belding School. Civic-minded Peterson offered to rent a corner of his land to BoE very reasonably.
I will look for that map.
(Did I catch all remarks?)
Weird thing is, we have some reason to think it returned to Edgebrook. Testimonies during FPDCC condemnation trials (1938) say it was there on the block.