Bancroft School


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Bancroft School
Posted by: PHILC ()
Date: December 17, 2012 06:33PM

Does anyone know whatever happened to the Bacnroft School. It was a CPS School locate NW of North Ave and Western. May have been torn down in the 30s or 20s. Any hint as to why? Family graduated from there around 1900 and have some class pictures from the school.

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Re: Bancroft School
Posted by: PKDickman ()
Date: December 17, 2012 10:43PM

No specific info, but a couple of years back, I walked up Artesian from North Ave.
A crew was cleaning out some rubble for some new construction.

The rubble consisted of giant sections of stone columns and capitals.
It was on the west side of the street around 1608 n.

I have some photos somewhere. I think the guy might still have one in his yard as art.

I never figured out what they were from, but a school that was torn down before the '29 polks directory, would make perfect sense.

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Re: Bancroft School
Posted by: PKDickman ()
Date: December 17, 2012 10:58PM

Ok That's probably not it.
But articles in the tribune archives puts it at Maplewood and Wabansia.
1638 N. Maplewood
I think Maplewood park stands there now.
It was still in use in '31 when it's enrollment got too low. Then they used it as a branch of Tuley High.

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Re: Bancroft School
Posted by: PHILC ()
Date: December 18, 2012 06:00PM

Thanks for your repsonse. Pictures I have show a pretty substantial biuilding. The class photos wee taken outside against the wall of the building. Thouogh they were taken in 1895, if you look at the kids faces, they could have been taken yesterday. Has anyone ever had any luck going to the Chicago Public Schools archives? That is I assume they exist.

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Re: Bancroft School
Posted by: WayOutWardell ()
Date: December 18, 2012 08:51PM

The Park District website has a history of Maplewood Park, and in part says that the park was established on Bd of Ed property in 1948, but doesn't mention when the Bancroft building was demolished. My mother attended the Sabin branch of Tuley for her first year (1950) but doesn't recall another branch of Tuley aside from that.

I hope you can share the photos with us!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/18/2012 08:52PM by WayOutWardell.

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Re: Bancroft School
Posted by: PHILC ()
Date: December 27, 2012 05:41PM

There is a photo of Bancroft School. I googled "Bancroft School Chicago" and one of the first things that came up was a list of what look like Chicago post cards one of which is a great veiw of Bancroft School. I also tried to put an 1895 class photo from the school on this board, but I can't figure out how to do it.

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Re: Bancroft School
Posted by: PKDickman ()
Date: December 27, 2012 07:17PM

Great looking school.

[url=http://chuckmancollectionvolume2.blogspot.com/2006/08/blog-post_115576023828476921.html]Chuckman postcard of Bancroft school[/url]

But it doesn't have any Ionian columns so I still don't know where this rubble on Artesian came from.




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Re: Bancroft School
Posted by: nordsider ()
Date: December 27, 2012 07:57PM

The Bancroft school is shown located on Artesian Avenue in this 1914 School Map:

http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/collections/maps/chi1900/G4104-C6E68-1914-C7.html

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Re: Bancroft School
Posted by: PHILC ()
Date: December 29, 2012 05:44PM

That is the location of Bancroft School.

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Re: Bancroft School
Posted by: PKDickman ()
Date: December 29, 2012 06:13PM

nordsider Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The Bancroft school is shown located on Artesian
> Avenue in this 1914 School Map:
>
> http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/collections/maps/chi
> 1900/G4104-C6E68-1914-C7.html


The map is wrong.
The school is listed as on Maplewood in the'29 Polk directory, and at least 4 or five times in the Trib archives including an RFQ ad for lunchroom equip and the address to apply for your sugar rations.

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Re: Bancroft School
Posted by: WayOutWardell ()
Date: December 30, 2012 12:53PM

Still trying to figure out where those columns and capitals came from...

There was a retail building on the NW corner of North and Artesian that was there at least through 1988 (replaced by a Walgreens). The '29 Polks Directory has the Lieberman-Nathan Dry Goods store listed there.

Directly to the north of that building, the Humboldt el line ran over the alley, and in the same aerial photos there appears to be a house adjacent to the tracks.

That capital looks too large to be from a house, and it would be strange if, during demolition for the Walgreens, those fragments ended up across an alley and buried in an empty lot, but anything's possible I guess.

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Re: Bancroft School
Posted by: PKDickman ()
Date: December 30, 2012 04:39PM

WayOutWardell Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Still trying to figure out where those columns and
> capitals came from...
>
> There was a retail building on the NW corner of
> North and Artesian that was there at least through
> 1988 (replaced by a Walgreens). The '29 Polks
> Directory has the Lieberman-Nathan Dry Goods store
> listed there.
>
> Directly to the north of that building, the
> Humboldt el line ran over the alley, and in the
> same aerial photos there appears to be a house
> adjacent to the tracks.
>
> That capital looks too large to be from a house,
> and it would be strange if, during demolition for
> the Walgreens, those fragments ended up across an
> alley and buried in an empty lot, but anything's
> possible I guess.

I wouldn't lose a lot of sleep over it. They are more than likely just some fill used to top off an empty basement.

They are enormous. The top of the column is around 30" in dia. If we back track from Vitruvius, that means columns 3 ft at the base and 27 ft tall.
We are talking bank sized.

Through a large portion of the 80's I rode the North Ave bus past this spot twice a day to my job as a bench jeweler in Elmwood Pk. My best recollection is that the Walgreens was a block of typical 3 story mixed use buildings.

I would surely have remembered a huge bank building.

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