Central Standard School

Name of Building or Business: Central Standard School

School District: 57

Grade Levels: K-8

Built: 1927

Demolished: 1975

What is currently at that address: The Mount Prospect Public Library

The Second Central School or the Central Standard School is one of the best remembered schools in Mount Prospect. It was built in 1927 and at the time was a great leap forward. Mount Prospect went from having one classroom for the entire town to having five: four new classrooms plus the original one-room Central School building. There were a number of additions to the Central Standard School, the first of which was built in 1937. Over time, the additions to the school became larger than the original school. With the boom of students in the 1950s and then the drop in enrollment in the 1970s, many of the schools in Mount Prospect faced insufficient enrollment. In the 1970s and 80s Mount Prospect’s schools were faced with rapidly falling enrollment, and many schools were closed, sold, or demolished. The Central Standard School went from teaching K-8 students to becoming a Junior High, just teaching 7th and 8th graders. Central School closed in spring 1970. In 1975 the Central Standard School, with all of its additions, was razed. Today the Main Branch of the Mount Prospect Public Library stands in its place.