Founded in 1873, Morgan Park Academy is a coeducational, college preparatory, independent day school dedicated to preparing students to pursue the highest levels of educational excellence with an emphasis on independent thinking and scholarship.
We reflect a wide array of diversity and apply a global lens to the curriculum to prepare students to act as leaders in the dynamic world of the future. We also expect students to live up to the highest standards of human values. Our track record shows that Morgan Park Academy students consistently achieve success in college and embrace leadership roles throughout their lives.
Our highly motivated faculty is complemented by a stimulating, time-tested curriculum. We have some of the smallest class sizes among the top schools in Illinois. Morgan Park Academy provides an engaging, personal learning experience for students from Preschool through High School.
History
Mt. Vernon Military Academy and Classical
1873Mt. Vernon Military Academy and Classical
was founded on a ridge above “Horse Thief Hollow” during Ulysses S. Grant’s second term as president, just in time for the “Panic of 1873.” It survived that economic dislocation—and a few others in its venerable history—and has endured and flourished as an independent school for well over a century.
Morgan Park Military Academy in 1877
1877Morgan Park Military Academy
It became Morgan Park Military Academy in 1877 with the Civil War still a vivid memory, and while the U.S. military operations were primarily concerned with the resistance of Geronimo and other Native American leaders in the West.
Tuition in the 1870s was $400 and included “board washing (12 pieces a week), [and] mending of under garments.” Uniforms added another $64.50 to the bill.
It was, from its inception, a proprietary school with the land and buildings owned by the headmaster, and intended to operate for the profit of the owner.
Illinois Military Academy
1890Illinois Military Academy
For a brief period (1890-1892),
it was incorporated by the state under the name of the Illinois Military Academy.
Operating simultaneously and in near proximity during those years was the Owen Academy, an informal school using buildings of the Baptist Theological Seminary to prepare students for entrance in advance of the opening of the new University of Chicago.
Morgan Park Academy of the University of Chicago.
1892Morgan Park Academy of the University of Chicago.
When William Rainey Harper became the founding president of the University of Chicago in 1892, the Academy became the non-sectarian, integrated, and co-ed (quite unusual for that time—although, the experiment did not survive the decade) preparatory school for the university. It was located in suburban Morgan Park, on land purchased in part from the Illinois Military Academy, and was given a new name: Morgan Park Academy of the University of Chicago.
Harper’s teachers at the Academy held university rank and one of them, Amos Alonzo Stagg, coached football for a time at both institutions. Two of the Academy’s alumni—Jesse Harper [1902], at Notre Dame, and Wallace Wade [1913], at Alabama and Duke—became coaches who were later elected to the College Football Hall of Fame. The Academy was also a participant in the first high school basketball game played in Illinois (in 1893) just one season after James Naismith invented the game in faraway Massachusetts. It was Amos Alonzo Stagg, who had worked with Naismith at the YMCA Training College in Springfield, Massachusetts, who brought basketball to Chicago.
After William Rainey Harper’s death in 1906, the University of Chicago discontinued its relationship with the Academy, and the school once again became a boys’ military boarding school.
Morgan Park Military Academy MPMA
1906Morgan Park Military Academy MPMA
After William Rainey Harper’s death in 1906, the University of Chicago discontinued its relationship with the Academy, and the school once again became a boys’ military boarding school.
Part of Harper’s legacy, which continues to this day, is a tradition of high standards, exemplary teaching, and a remarkable loyalty to the school on the part of faculty, administration, staff, alumni, and students. Just consider the tenures of the faculty members Harry D. Abells (1898-1945), Haydn Jones (1899-1946), Francis Gray (1917-1960), and David A. Jones (1957-1998), among others. Note, too, the many alumni who have sent their own children to the Academy.
The Great Depression
1933The Great Depression
The Academy survived the Great Depression thanks, in part to two bold moves by Superintendent Harry D. Abells.
While other schools were going under Abells expanded the Academy to increase revenue by starting a junior college (1933) and offering summer school courses—even to girls—from public and parochial schools.
Morgan Park Academy
1958Perhaps the most difficult decade in the school's history was 1958-1967, after the reluctant decision to demilitarize. Girls were admitted again in 1959, boarding was gradually phased out, and the school became integrated. Morgan Park Academy survived those cataclysmic changes, endured, and flourished. And, although it has had different names and evolving academic configurations, Morgan Park Academy has represented a tradition of educational excellence for more than a century and a quarter.
Perhaps the most difficult decade in the school’s history was 1958-1967, after the reluctant decision to demilitarize. Girls were admitted again in 1959, boarding was gradually phased out, and the school became integrated.
Morgan Park Academy survived those cataclysmic changes, endured, and flourished. And, although it has had different names and evolving academic configurations, Morgan Park Academy has represented a tradition of educational excellence for more than a century and a quarter.