PDF Download: Preservation Chicago’s 2005 Chicago 7 Most Endangered Booklet

The stately Jacob Riis Public School, 1111 S. Throop, survived years of declining attendance and neighborhood change, culminating with its closure by the school board in 2002. The building survived when much of its surroundings were demolished to make way for the Jane Addams public housing in the late 1930s, and it even survived as those buildings in turn succumbed to the wrecking ball in 2004.

Update:However, after so many chapters in its rich history, and in spite of the structure’s remarkably solid state, LR Development demolishing the school to make way for the massive Roosevelt Square development, which is replacing the Jane Addams Homes that once surrounded the school.