Latin School of Chicago

Background: Ellie Lambraikas' science classroom. The old Plaza Hotel at North and Clark had seen better days by the '60s. In the '20s, however, it had been quite respectable, and Ernest Hemingway's first wife, Hadley, stayed there during their courtship. Initially, the board of trustees formulated a plan to sell the Scott Street building and construct a new building near the lower school on Dearborn. The search for land, however, proved difficult, especially on a limited budget. The board, under the leadership of William Harrison Fetridge and Clark Devoe, head of the buildings and grounds committee, decided instead to demolish the old Scott Street building and build a new upper school on its site. This was not an ideal solution because the building footprint would not provide much more square footage, and the cost would still be high, especially since another space would have to be found for the school during construction. Miles Berger '48, who was a member of the board of trustees at the time and later the treasurer, recalled the difficult position the school was in. "We knew we wanted to build, but we still weren't sure about where," Berger said. "We had started a fundraising campaign, and the response initially wasn't very good." "Leaning over his desk, peering bright-faced over his half-glasses like a jolly Dickensian caroler just in from the cold round of serenading, he gave rein to his pleasure in music. …Over an hour later I emerged, feeling gratified, excited, and charged with John Graham's warmth and zest for knowledge and with his slightly subversive sense of amusement and observation. … I think it was this 'charge' of his and his immense enthusiasm for learning which endeared so many students and teachers to John Graham and made him the great teacher he was. He sparkled with references to all sorts of subjects. His pleasure in intellectual speculation was contagious; teachers and many students – particularly the older ones – felt privileged to share it." ERA OF Although in many ways the '60s and '70s were an exciting and inspiring time at Latin School of Chicago with many academic developments and a group of new teachers who were creating distinctive programming, they also were a time of great upheaval. "There was a huge amount of conflict," said Miles Berger '48, who was on the board of trustees at the time. "We had three constituencies – the students, the faculty and the parents and they all had their own points of view. We had the new parents and we had the old parents – the parents who had gone to Latin themselves and liked the old ways. Teachers were different too. They weren't the old-line teachers. They were younger and much more in tune with what was happening. I remember huge battles at the annual meetings. At one meeting some woman stood up and shouted, 'Look at the way these children are dressing! Why don't the teachers stand at the door and send them home when they come in looking like that?' At the time, my thought was: 'Why don't we as parents stand at the door and not let – Music teacher John Austin in the 1979 Alumni Bulletin commemorating John Graham's passing. Latin students favored fashionable short skirts. 70 L AT I N M AGAZINE

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