The two buildings that once made up Francis Scott Key Elementary School on Chicago's West Side will be filled again with students when the Field School, a non-denominational Christian school for grades K to 8, expands later this summer to the second building.
Austin Weekly News reports that the Field School, which started operations in 2017 in a church in the nearby suburb of Oak Park, moved some of its classes to the north building of the former Key Elementary in 2022. Now, renovations of the south building have been completed, and Field School's middle school grades will be housed there.
Key Elementary was a public school serving the city's Austin neighborhood until it closed in 2013.
Architect Dwight Perkins designed the south building in 1907. The north building opened in 1969 to accommodate increased enrollment.
The south building is a landmark, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Because of that, the Field School was required to preserve certain elements of the structure. To make the south building accessible, workers installed an elevator.
An auditorium is on the south building’s second floor. Its original seats are still on the balcony, and the Field School replaced the plastic chairs at stage level with pews from a Catholic church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The top floor holds the campus gym.
The cafeteria remains in the north building, so students will traverse from one structure to the other daily.
The north building underwent renovations totaling $4.5 million before opening in 2022. In 2024, about $18 million in upgrades started on the south building. Half of that was financed by a historic tax credit – which encourages the rehabilitation of historic buildings – and new market tax credit, which encourages private investment in low-income communities. The Field School raised funds or the remaining $9 million.
