COONLEY ELEMENTARY

4046 North Leavitt Street

Chicago, IL 60618

773.534.5140 coonley.cps.edu

Great Schools rating

John C Coonley Elementary School was built during the World’s Columbian Exposition, the historic Chicago World’s Fair of 1892, which opened to the public May 1, 1893 and continued until October 30, 1893. Originally Belle Plaine Avenue School, in 1901 the name was changed to Coonley after John C. Coonley (1838-1882), a Chicago businessman born near Utica, NY. In the last year of his life he served as president of the Union League Club, a Chicago institution he helped found. A front page story in the July 15, 1892 edition of the Chicago Daily Tribune, “Making Ready a City. Aldermen Still Preparing for World’s Fair,” (excerpt at right) mentions the City Council approved a Committee on Schools recommendation to appropriate for a “school site, Leavitt and Belle Plaine avenue, $4,450.” Noted earlier in the account is, “four-room frame building, Leavitt and Belle Plaine avenue.”