Latin School of Chicago

"I was 5 when I entered Girls Latin in 1937. The head mistress was the elegant New England educator Elizabeth Singleton. She had a calmness and supporting hand during the anxious prewar years. The teacher I most admired was Isabelle Lawrence. She was the seventh grade homeroom teacher and author of many adventurous historical novels for teens. When we finished our class work she read us her work in progress – with a dramatic flourish – and we were totally enthralled. Her books were about the great events in history, and my favorites were about the American Revolutionary war set in the Colonial capital, Williamsburg, Virginia. When I had my own children I read Miss Lawrence's books to them and they loved them as I had, and then later to my grandchildren. What an inspiring woman she was. Her example gave me the courage to write my first book." — Joan Lebold Cohen '50 The Posture Walk was not quite as beloved as the Annual Dog Show. taught at the boys school) until she retired in 1929. When the school was bought by a group of parents after Miss Vickery's retirement, it was incorporated as the Girls Latin School of Chicago and retained that name until 1953. Headmistress Elizabeth Singleton followed in Miss Vickery's footsteps and built a reputation for leading the school with grace, dignity and wisdom. The school's final head, Annie Allen, arrived in 1945. Allen was a product of coeducation and was an early supporter of uniting the two schools. She would go on to work with Mark A. Neville, headmaster Sixth graders in 1942. 42 L AT I N M AGAZINE at the boys school, which was located at 1531 North Dearborn, to pave the way for the merger that happened over two years in 1952-53 and 1953-1954. During its four decades, GLS offered an academic program not much different from that of the boys; French, Latin, English, history, mathematics and science were part of the curriculum. According to a 1939 girls school brochure: "The school's high scholastic standards are nationally recognized. … Supplementing activities include carefully trained glee clubs, dramatics for each class in the middle and high schools, school government, sports, shop and art, field trips and the occasional party." Like the boys, a fair number of girls went East for boarding school and later enrolled at the top women's colleges of the time – among them Radcliffe, Bryn Mawr, Wellesley and Vassar. Also similar to the boys school, the girls school had an exceptional faculty that students remembered fondly long after graduating. At the same time, the school had its own distinctive culture and developed its own unique traditions, some of which survived the merger and became part of the Latin School of Chicago. The school colors were gold and blue. Each grade had its own mascot. A popular activity was the Walking Club, which was introduced by Ms. Schill, the girls' first physical education teacher, in 1914. Not quite as popular was the Posture Walk. The

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