Chicago (population 2.7 million) is located in far northeastern Illinois in the center of Cook County.
Chicago is famous for many different reasons and was a great influence on the growth of the United States in the early
1800s. It is, today, the third largest city in the United States and Illinois' largest city.
The Catholic religion and establishment of a Catholic education has had a strong influence in Chicago
neighborhoods almost from the time Chicago was settled in the very early 1800s. Archbishop James E. Quigley
was one of the early pioneers who recognized the need for a high quality education with a religious basis. Archbishop
Quigley established a school for high school boys in 1905. Archbishop Quigley
died in 1915, however his dream of a high school in Chicago lived on. In 1916 a high school building was erected in what is
now downtown Chicago at Rush Street and Pearson Street. The school truly flourished until it reached a peak
of 1300 students for the four high school grades in the mid 1950s.
Quigley High School grew rapidly and became the largest Catholic Seminary School in the nation. The
vast growth made it necessary to build a new school to accomodate the influx of students. In 1961 it was decided to
purchase land and erect a school on the city's south side. Quigley South High School was built on Western Avenue at 77th Street. The Quigley High School building which remained at the same
location downtown was now called Quigley North High School. Much of this information was found on the Quigley Preparatory
Seminary website at www.quigley.org.
The enrollment at both Quigley schools began to steadily decrease in the 1970s. By
the mid 1980s several changes began taking place with the Catholic Church and its school system. The decreasing enrollment
and changes taking place led to the reorganization of the Quigley Schools. Quigley South and Quigley North were
merged back into one school in 1989 and the school renamed Quigley Preparatory Seminary . The students would
now attend school back at the original downtown school location pictured above.
To read more about the Quigley school history please go to:
