School District: Archdiocese of Chicago
Grade levels: K-8
Built: 1954
Is it still standing? Yes
Is it still a school? Yes
History
Founded in 1949 Saint Raymond’s Catholic Church was the first Catholic Parish in Mount Prospect and grew very rapidly in the 1950s. The church started out meeting in the basement of the Central School, which was at that time housing Saint John’s Episcopal Church. In the early 1950s the church decided to found a Catholic school for the growing parish. As the only Catholic School in the community it quickly filled beyond capacity. In the first years of its operation, students had a split schedule, in which some students would come in the morning and leave in the early afternoon while others would come in the afternoon and leave in the evening. Thereby allowing the school to serve twice the student population it was built to house. In 1961 Saint Emily built a second Catholic school in the community and much of the burden was lessened. The school has continued to be a center for the Catholic community in Mount Prospect over the past 50 years.