Category Archives: Schools and school districts

Brown’s Business College (1864-1994)

Posted on November 8, 2020 by editor

In 1864, Washington Rutledge, a relative of Abraham Lincoln’s reputed love Ann Rutledge, opened Rutledge & Davidson’s Commercial College in Springfield. Over the next 130 years, Rutledge & Davidson’s and its descendants provided what an early advertisement called “passports to … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Education, Higher education, Schools and school districts | Leave a comment

Lanphier High School’s historic Earth Day flag

Posted on April 18, 2020 by editor

A homemade flag Lanphier High School students carried to the Statehouse in 1970 as a symbol of the environmental movement found a permanent home in the Smithsonian Institution. But a mystery remains: who sewed the flag? Smithsonian Magazine revived the … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Schools and school districts, Science | 13 Comments

Illinois High School Association state champions (individual)

Posted on January 1, 2020 by editor

The first Sangamon County youth to be named state champion in any sport was Springfield High School student Frank Bogardus (1874-1931), who won the “drop foot ball kick” at Illinois’ first statewide track meet in May 1893. His kick traveled … Continue reading →

Posted in Schools and school districts, Sports and recreation, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

St. Patrick Parish, Springfield

Posted on August 22, 2019 by editor

The flag of Ireland lay draped beside the Stars and Stripes at a banquet held at the St. Nicholas Hotel on St. Patrick’s Day 1915. Springfield’s Irish Fellowship, led by the Irish-born Rev. Timothy Hickey, had organized Lá Fhéile Pádraig, … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Churches, Ethnic groups, Irish, Irish, Schools and school districts | 2 Comments

First woman principals in Springfield public schools

Posted on August 14, 2019 by editor

Women served as principals in the Springfield public schools for the first time in the 1874-75 school year, but only following a debate in which some board members declared they opposed “so hazardous an experiment as the employment of lady … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Local government, Schools and school districts, Women | Leave a comment

Basketball tournament in Illinois State Fairgrounds Coliseum, 1933

Posted on July 18, 2019 by editor

Repairs to the Illinois State Fairgrounds Coliseum, under way in summer 2019, will include heating and air-conditioning systems. But the building was unheated in the winter of 1933, when the Coliseum played host to a boys high school basketball tournament. … Continue reading →

Posted in Amusements, Buildings, Depression, Schools and school districts, Sports and recreation | 2 Comments

Ridgely Elementary School, 1914-1926 (Marguerite Soma memories)

Posted on October 30, 2017 by editor

In 1997, students at Ridgely Elementary School, 2040 N. Eighth St., interviewed former Ridgely teacher Marguerite Beechler Soma (1894-1997). Her reminiscences were compiled and published on the school’s Alumni Day web site (in fact, the site was dedicated to her). … Continue reading →

Posted in Children, Education, Histories, Schools and school districts, Women | 2 Comments

Patrick Henry statue, St. Joseph School

Posted on September 29, 2017 by editor

The mystery of what happened to St. Joseph School’s statue of Patrick Henry may never be solved. But the question of how a life-sized marble sculpture of a Protestant patriot happened to stand above the entrance of a Catholic school … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Arts and letters, Buildings, Churches, Education, Schools and school districts | 1 Comment

Women’s vote history, Sangamon County

Posted on April 24, 2017 by editor

Following the Civil War, Illinoisans decided their state constitution needed updating. Delegates met in Springfield from December 1869 until May 1870, and one of the issues they debated was whether to allow universal suffrage. The 15th amendment to the U.S. … Continue reading →

Posted in Local government, Politics, Prominent figures, Sangamon County, Schools and school districts, Springfield, Women | Leave a comment

Lincoln Library’s grandfather clock

Posted on March 10, 2017 by editor

The nine-foot-tall grandfather clock that sits on the first floor of Lincoln Library was given to the library in 1936 by the widow of former Springfield School Superintendent J.H. Collins. Collins, according to a bookmark available at the library that … Continue reading →

Posted in Local government, Politics, Prominent figures, Schools and school districts | 5 Comments