From (
visit link)
The school's main building was designed by the architect Toussaint Menard in the Second French Empire style. It was also deemed a Chicago Landmark in 1987 after an extensive restoration.
The 19 acre campus is located on Chicago's West Side, adjacent to the campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago. Features of the campus besides the 1869 building, include the Richard H. Driehaus "1895" Building, the Chicago Center, the McLaughlin Center and its 370 seat McLaughlin Theatre (with an interior modeled after several European opera houses). The Grand Gallery and Brunswick Library on the fifth floor of the 1869 building feature a monument to alumni who fought in the Spanish-American War as well as a collection of notable letters and manuscripts ranging from American Civil War battle orders to a letter written by author Alexandre Dumas. The Brunswick Library originally housed the collection of Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History prior to the completion of its construction.
In the 1850s, Fr. Arnold Damen, S.J., a Jesuit priest, set out to start a parish and college for the academically talented children of immigrants on Chicago's near-West Side, then an area of sprawling prairie. Construction of Damen's Holy Family Church was completed in 1857. With funds provided by Dutch financiers, construction of the main building of St. Ignatius College commenced in 1869 with designs by the French architect Toussaint Menard. On June 30, 1870, the Illinois General Assembly approved the Charter of St. Ignatius College, and in September, 1870 St. Ignatius opened its doors to thirty-seven young men who had completed the Eighth grade, the extent of formal education during the time period.
St. Ignatius was one of the first colleges in the Chicago area, predating the University of Chicago by 20 years and graduating its first class little more than a decade after Northwestern University did so. Students were instructed in Latin, Greek, the elementary sciences, writing, arithmetic and rhetoric — the components of a traditional "college" education of the era. In 1871, disaster struck Chicago in the form of the Great Chicago Fire, but Damen's church and college were one of only a few buildings to be spared from the inferno. Fr. Damen sent a telegraph to Pope Pius IX early in the day of the fire to ask his Holiness to pray to God to save Holy Family and St. Ignatius and promised to keep a candle lit as a memorial for as long as he lived--today the candle still burns in the school's Cuneo Chapel.
St. Ignatius continued to grow through the 1870s and 1880s, adding another wing to the 1869 building 1874, and becoming an early pioneer in the new field of x-ray radiography. In 1895, the college's enrollment had expanded substantially enough to warrant the construction of a second building, the 1895 building. Just two years after the debut of electric power on a grand scale at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, St. Ignatius demonstrated its commitment to new technology when the 1895 building was constructed with integrated electric wiring, and the 1869 building was retrofitted to accommodate electricity.
In the early 20th century, as Chicago's population boomed the enrollment of St. Ignatius increased commensurately. In 1922, St. Ignatius had become so large that the Jesuit order decided to separate the education of 14-18 year old boys into a "high school" and the education of adult males into a separate entity that became Loyola University Chicago. Thus, St. Ignatius Academy was born. The school continued its mission through the 1950s and 1960s to provide education to boys from all walks of life. However, by the 1970s St. Ignatius' buildings had fallen into disrepair, enrollment was declining, and the school appeared to be poised to become a victim of urban decay. Fundraising initiatives begun in the 1970s, such as the "Walk for Ignatius" and annual benefits (the first headlined by Bob Hope in 1976) helped revive the school's financial health.
In 1980, the school bowed to the pressure of alumni with daughters and began to admit girls. The infusion of females caused enrollment to climb. In 1981, Fr. Donald H. Rowe, S.J. was selected by the Board of Trustees as the school's new President. A charismatic, dynamic, and controversial figure, Rowe immediately stated his intention to begin a renaissance for St. Ignatius. Rowe began a campaign in 1986 to completely restore the 1869 and 1895 buildings, the latter of which was renamed the Richard H. Driehaus Building. Additionally, Rowe set his sights on making St. Ignatius a repository of antique art linked to Chicago's storied past. $60 million was spent restoring the two buildings to their original architectural designs, including renovations room by room to restore the building, its flooring, paneling, paint, fixtures, etc. to be consistent with those of the late 19th century. The renovation and restoration continues to this day. St. Ignatius is recognized on the National Register of Historic Places. In 2001-2002 the exterior of the 1869 building was renovated again and the slate roof and the decorative copper gutters replaced, with a stated effort to preserve the building for "centuries to come".
Among the school's collection of art are works by such great Chicago architects as Louis Sullivan, Dankmar Adler and Frank Lloyd Wright, none of whom were alumni. Many are preserved pieces from buildings that were torn down.
Among the school’s alumni are Bob Newhart (1947), stand-up comedian and actor.