Problems of overcrowding at Edgebrook School during the 1940s led to the building of a four-room schoolhouse in the Wildwood community, but a larger school was soon needed, according to information recently obtained by the Edgebrook Historical Society.

The schoolhouse, which accommodated 192 students, was built in 1943-44 and later incorporated into the current Wildwood School structure which was built in 1952. The school is located on land bounded by Moselle, Hiawatha, Mendota and Leoti that the Chicago Board of Education purchased in 1942.

“The rapid growth of the Wildwood community soon made it evident that the four-room structure was most inadequate,” a program for the Feb. 5, 1953, dedication ceremony of the new school stated. The beautiful community of Edgebrook-Wildwood attracted many parents seeking an ideal setting for rearing their children. As the enrollment of the Edgebrook School increased beyond capacity, additional educational facilities became necessary.”

Historical society president Jody McDowell said that new Wildwood principal Mary Beth Cunat recently found a copy of the program and other important information and photographs on the school’s history and turned over the materials to the society. McDowell said that while the society has several items about the history of Edgebrook School, whose current facility was built in 1939, little was known about Wildwood.

The large influx of families moving into the Edgebrook-Wildwood area in the 1940s and early 1950s had forced administrators at Edgebrook to use the library and assembly hall for classroom use. Some families also had complained about the long commute which children from the Wildwood area faced when walking to Edgebrook School.

It is not known if a 1943 plan to build a Hiawatha Avenue pedestrian underpass near the Edgebrook train station was proposed in part to help students with their commute, McDowell said. Several area community organizations recently formed a committee to help bring improvements to that underpass, which links Lehigh Avenue to Kinzua Avenue.

Wildwood graduate Tom Perry said that he attended first through fourth grades at the four-room schoolhouse and eighth grade at the new school, while he was enrolled at Edgebrook for the other grades. “I was in the first graduating class from the new school,” said Perry, whose wife Edith also attended Wildwood.

Wildwood’s first principal, Marcella Rochfort, and Chicago Public Schools superintendent Herold Hunt attended the dedication ceremony in 1953. Hunt was a nationally recognized leader in the educational community and was credited with cleaning up much of the political corruption in the school system, whose non-teaching jobs often went to the precinct workers of aldermen.

“This beautiful building not only matches the beauty of architecture of the neighborhood but brings a physical education program, a home mechanics program, a library, an auditorium and modern equipment for the pupils,” the program stated.

At the same time the school was constructed in the early 1950s, the Chicago Park District built Wildwood Park immediately next to the school grounds. “We used to play football and baseball back there (prior to the park’s completion),” Perry said.

The school and park district have had a longstanding agreement which allows the park district to use the school’s gymnasium.

For photos click here.