Motley School
Chicago, Cook County
The Renaissance Revival-style John Lothrop Motley School, designed by Chicago Board of Education architect John J. Flanders in 1884, was a product of changing laws and standards regarding childhood education. From the 1880s through the early 1900s, the city’s public schools gained thousands of new students as rural farming families moved into the city, new populations arrived from Europe, and as new laws were passed to require school attendance and to reduce child labor. The school’s design incorporated the prevailing concepts of school architecture in the late-nineteenth century, with its masonry construction, central hallway plan, and classrooms with tall windows for ample light and ventilation. A south addition with nine additional classrooms was added in 1898 and designed by Flanders’ school board architect successor, Normand Smith Patton.
