Anthony Overton Elementary School
- Architect
- Perkins & Will
- Year
- 1963
- Style
- Mid-Century Modern
- City
- Chicago, IL
Anthony Overton Elementary School opened in 1963 at 221 E. 49th Street, one of three prototype schools designed to relieve overcrowding in Chicago's poor, majority-Black neighborhoods and built mainly to serve children from the nearby Robert Taylor Homes. It's named for Anthony Overton, the Black business leader who founded the Chicago Bee.
the building
Three sections, not one block. Perkins & Will split the school into three separate three-story sections rather than a single institutional mass, each faced in colorful yellow brick with large corner windows shaded by canopies — a deliberate break from the look of a typical Chicago public school.
the style
The mid-century modern design was chosen specifically to avoid the institutional feel of older school buildings, using bright brick and broken-up massing instead of a monolithic front.
More on Mid-Century Modernsignificance
The school served students until 2013, when it closed amid a wave of Chicago Public Schools closures; it is now being converted into a community arts center by the Emerald South Economic Development Collaborative. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
nearby
- Du Sable High School
- Pate-Comiskey House
- Chicago Orphan Asylum Building
- Robert S. Abbott House
- Mt. Pisgah Missionary Baptist Church Complex
- Oscar Stanton De Priest House