Morgan Park Academy Faces Change
Southwest Side
Mt. Vernon Military and Classical Academy was founded in 1873 as an independent military boarding school for boys. It was located in what was then the suburb of Morgan Park, now a neighborhood on the Far Southwest Side of Chicago.
In 1892, the school became Morgan Park Academy of the University of Chicago, a preparatory school that would prepare students to enter the newly established University of Chicago. William Rainey Harper, the first president of the university, changed Morgan Academy policies to allow girls and students of color into the student body. Teachers were considered part of the University of Chicago faculty. Amos Alonzo Stagg coached football at both institutions and and organized the first high school basketball game in Illinois with Morgan Park students in 1893. The relationship between the Academy and University of Chicago ended after Harper's death in 1906, and Morgan Park reverted to its previous form. It remained a military academy for boys until the 1950s, when it transitioned to a coeducational day school.
Morgan Park Academy is still located on the campus where it moved during the affiliation with the University of Chicago. Photographs of many of the new buildings and campus spaces can be found in the collections of the University of Chicago Archives.
