Stickney (private) School
Edgewater Historical Society - The Stickney School (V14-2)
Vol. XIV No. 2 - SPRING/SUMMER 2003 The Stickney School The Stickney School at 1054 W. Hollywood in Edgewater was established in 1893 by Julia Noyes...
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Vol. XIV No. 2 - SPRING/SUMMER 2003
The Stickney School
The Stickney School at 1054 W. Hollywood in Edgewater was established in 1893 by Julia Noyes Stickney and Josephine Stickney. The first classrooms were in a residence which accommodated about 60 scholars. In 1903 the school on Hollywood was built. It was enlarged in 1910 and again in 1917. Between 1903 and 1910 the population of Edgewater grew. The only schools in the area were the Goudy School at Foster and Winthrop, the Rosehill School on Ashland north of Peterson and the Edgewater School on Winthrop at Thorndale.
The Stickney School offered an alternative to public education, with its purpose stated as "a school to give boys and girls the best foundation possible for their physical and moral development along with careful and thorough intellectual training. Emphasis is place on self-direction, helpfulness and good habits of work. The knowledge among the best educators that learning is an individual and personal matter, and that little can be realized by 'mass production' is the keynote of the school." Clearly this private educational institution planned to distinguish itself from public education.
The school included a Kindergarten, Primary Grades, a Lower School (grades 3,4,5) an Upper School (grades 6,7,8) and a High School for girls. The high school was focused on preparing girls to take the College Entrance Examination Board test in order to gain admission to eastern colleges such as Smith, Holyoke, Wellesley, Bryn Mawr and Vassar. Each student was required to participate in organized athletics which included basketball, swimming, volley-ball, baseball, table tennis and riding at the Holdorf Riding School in Morton Grove.
In 1930 the original founders of the school, the Misses Stickney, retired after 37 years of service. The school was sold to Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Durrant, who became the principals of the school. From the time the school was first built until 1950, Hollywood Avenue was a neighborhood street that ended at the lakefront. On the south side of the street across from the school was the Apartment Building designed by neighborhood architect, J.E.O. Pridmore. At the southwest corner of Hollywood and Winthrop was the Edgewater Country Club, an older social club that hosted dances and special events.
