Historic Mt. Prospect school set to move this week

After six years of trying to move the historic Central School to a safe location, the Mount Prospect Historical Society is scheduled to move the 1896 schoolhouse a little after 10 a.m. today.

The white, one-room building, already has been jacked up and moved from its home at the corner of Wille and Thayer streets out onto Thayer. Today, it will be transported about half a mile down Main Street to its new home next door to the Mount Prospect Historical Society, a process expected to take an hour or so.

"I feel like this is probably how a parent feels seeing their kid go off to college or getting married," said Gavin Kleespies, executive director of the Mount Prospect Historical Society. "It's a culmination of years of work -- tireless work by so many people."

Once the building has been successfully moved, the historical society plans to restore it to its role as a community center, Kleespies said. The society purchased the building from the owner, St. John's Episcopal Church, at a cost of $1. The church had wanted the land where the school sits for other uses, including a parking lot, Kleespies said.

The historical society, an independent nonprofit organization, has been fundraising to save this building since 2002.

The cost of moving the school, including constructing a new foundation and relocating utilities, will be about $250,000, he said. About that same amount will be required to renovate the building, so the society will keep on raising funds, he said.

Mount Prospect's first school, Central School, a vintage Italianate building, was listed on Landmarks Illinois' Chicagoland Watch List for 2007-08 and was in danger of being demolished if it was not moved.

The building has had many transformations in the past 112 years.

It was the first home of the Mount Prospect Public Library, Mount Prospect Elementary District 57 (it was the first school in Illinois to cross township lines, with one foot in Elk Grove and another in Wheeling), the fire department, three local churches (St. John's, St. Paul Lutheran and South), the women's club and even the first movie screen.

Also, the letters or incorporation, legally forming the Village of Mount Prospect, were signed inside this building in 1917.

This is actually the second time the building has been moved.

In 1939, the school was lifted from its original location at the corner of Emerson Street and Central Road, on to the current site of the public library. By then, there was actually a second school -- Central Standard School built in 1927 -- and the two schools stood side by side.

The school was moved to make room for an addition to Central Standard. District 57 sold the building, which provided the first home to St. John's Episcopal Church.