Built in 1927, the Geneva Country Day School at 1250 South Street "was part of a nationwide movement at the turn of the century which challenged the established system of education." This progressive education movement focused more on critical thinking than memorization and recitation and eventually inspired changes in public schools nationwide.
Educators at the University of Chicago outlined the plans for the school and it was designed with "an environment rich in interesting material and with full opportunity for initiative and self-expression" by a leading architecture firm in Chicago, Holabird and Roche. The school closed in 1939 and was eventually acquired by the Geneva Park District.
By 1989, the park district was leasing the former school to the Red Cross and considering expansion of the Geneva Memorial Swimming Pool nearby which may have required the school's demolition. Preservation Partners of the Fox Valley assisted in the completion of an application for the former school building to be added to the National Register for Historic Places. This application would not prevent demolition, so the primary purpose was to bring attention to the historic significance of the school for Geneva and the progressive education movement nationwide.
The Geneva Park District did not demolish the school and eventually sold it in 1996. In 1998, Tim Reed and Lisa Anderson bought the school and adapted it into a private residence which it continues to serve as to this day.
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PHOTO: Geneva Republican, November 2, 1989.
SOURCES: Tim Unzicker, "Day School Wins Place on Historic Register, Geneva Republican, November 2, 1989; Rick Nagel, "Preservationists Have New Cause," Geneva Republican, July 6, 1989; Nancy Mavrogenes, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Geneva Country Day School, April 14, 1989, 5-8; https://web.archive.org/web/20131203044646/http://gis.hpa.state.il.us/pdfs/200971.pdf; "RKC + HUG = Preservation Power," Restoration Advocate 8, no. 2 (June 1989): 1; "Historic Country Day School Still for Sale," Advocate (Spring 1996): 1; "Building Watch Updates," Advocate (Spring 1998): 4.