William Beye School ~ 1879-Present 
It all began on August 16, 1879, when handwritten minutes of the Board of Directors of the Oak Park Schools told of the new school in “Ridgeland” as the area was called, at a cost of $8, 000. Classes were first held in a two story four-room brick structure where Beye School stands in the fall of 1879. There is some question as to whether the original school was called the Ridgeland School or the Ontario Street School. In all probability, it was probably known by both.
Ridgeland School in 1890
School days in Ridgeland had actually begun in 1872 in one room at the rear of Dorn’s store on the northeast corner of Lake and Ridgeland. Area citizens had decided the walk to the district’s only school, at the southwest corner of Lake and Forest Avenue, was too far for their children and they wanted a school in their area. Two-thirds of the voters petitioned the township board for a school district of their own and the District 1 board members decided to rent room in the store to placate the aroused parents. By 1877, more than thirty children were enrolled in the school, which by then took up two rooms in the rear of the store, and upper grade classes also needed accommodation. This led to the new school in 1879.In 1895, Board of Education member William Beye was reporting that although “improvements have been made (at Ontario Street School) to add to the comfort of the pupils and teachers…..this building should be replaced by a modern one more suitable for the present needs of (the) locality . ” In 1896, the School Board acted on Beye’s recommendation and had the old brick four-room building torn down and replaced by an eight-room frame and stucco building at a cost of $26, 448.60. The construction wasn’t finished in time for the beginning of school and rooms were rented in stores for the classes.
Beye in 1896
The Board’s third annual report, for the year ending June 30, 1897, noted that construction of the new school “relieved the high school building to the extent of four rooms formerly occupied by classes in first, second, third and fourth grades. “
William Beye was a businessman who had served seven years on the School Board at the time of his death, April 10, 1897. He had been instrumental in the building of the 1896 Ontario Street School and, at the first Board meeting following his death, citizens asked that the new school be named for him. The Oak Park Reporter, May 14, 1897, related that the meeting adopted “by a rising vote” a resolution to “change the name of the Ontario Street School to the William Beye School. ” The same meeting also heard a citizens’ committee report, urging the building of a gymnasium and swimming pool “in connection with the high school, ” at an estimated cost of $2, 500. The money could be obtained, the report stated, by “cutting off a teacher of penmanship, whose salary is $1, 250 a year, and is a superfluity. ” The average monthly salary for a grade school teacher in Oak Park in 1897 was $75.10.
By 1901, the Board’s Building and Grounds Committee was reporting that Beye School “was so crowded, basement rooms were being used as schoolrooms. ” That year, the sixth, seventh and eighth grades each had two teachers, although the third and fourth grades teamed up to be taught by one woman. During the year, the Board issued bonds for the purchase of two more school sites and construction on the schools we now know as Whittier and Hawthorne began.
Elementary school students at that time studied reading, language and grammar, geography, arithmetic and history. They also had instruction in drawing and music (courses the far-seeing William Beye had insisted be introduced into the curriculum) and in spelling and science, as well as the structure and care of the body “including lectures on the injurious effect of the use of alcohol and tobacco. “
Beginning in 1892, elementary school boys had been able to study shop and mechanical drawing at the high school. The 1901 Board Report stated “there has been a strong feeling that the needs of the girls should be recognized, ” and a domestic science teacher was engaged for the next school year. The seventh and eighth grade girls were to spend one afternoon a week for a semester learning cooking and other household arts, with 45 minutes set aside especially for sewing.
Oak Park became a municipality, a village, in 1902, and the school district was named District 97 that year. In November of 1903, the School Board changed the names of six of Oak Park’s seven schools — only Beye remained the same. Augusta Street School became Whittier School; Central, Lowell; North, Holmes; South, Emerson; Highland Avenue, Longfellow, and Sixty-fourth Avenue, Hawthorne . Lincoln School opened in 1906; Irving in 1909; Hatch in 1922, and Mann in 1927.
School enrollment increased over the years, and in 1905, a basement room at Beye was refurbished for a classroom. Parents were assured that it was “well ventilated and wholesome . “
In 1911, the Board spent $16, 069 for lots on the Beye block and in 1914, a 50 by 100 foot frame addition was built north of the main building at a cost of $15, 000. It housed a “study hall and indoor gymnasium” and was used for assemblies and music and writing classes, as well as a community meeting hall.
By 1917 Beye had 420 students, taught by 12 teachers. In 1922, an eleven room $157, 700 addition, including a new heating plant and new plumbing, was constructed. It is now the middle part of the present school.
In late May of 1930, Beye’ s “old wooden part burned like a furnace, ” according to the May 30, 1930 Oak Leaves. Value of the burned portion, which was the eight room building constructed in 1896, was put at $150, 000, including $30, 000 worth of equipment. The newspaper reported that “Superintendent Hamilton at once began making plans to keep the 650 pupils on the job during the remaining ten days of school. Quarters at Hawthorne School and the Cuyler Avenue Church may be used as classrooms. ” The cause of the fire was unknown because all electric power had been shut down in the building, as was the nightly rule. Fire chief Walters speculated that cleaning materials stored in a closet could have started the blaze. The fireproof brick middle part of the school was damaged slightly by smoke and water and the old frame gym at the north end of the complex was unscathed. Reconstruction of the burned wing cost $129, 121. It comprises the south wing of the present school.
Class of 1934
During World War II, Beye students did their part for the war effort. In 1944, they saved $1,225 through the “Schools at War” program for the purchase of a jeep, a bayonet and a sub-machine gun for the fighting men. Ninety percent of the students participated in the war bonds savings program. They also wove afghans for the wounded, donated to the Red Cross, and filled 148 Christmas stockings for “the boys. ” That year they also donated three truck loads of food for the needy at Thanksgiving and took 135 flowering plants to World War I veterans at IIines Hospital.
In the fall of 1953, the old frame north unit, known as “the gym” was torn down and construction began on a two-story addition that includes the present auditorium, gymnasium, and rooms for art, industrial and home arts and music.
In September, 1976, Oak Park elementary schools were reorganized and Beye became a kindergarten through sixth grade school — seventh and eighth grade students from the area now attend Percy Julian Middle School. That fall of 1976 also saw the beginning of major remodeling at the school. The job was completed in the spring at a cost of more than one million dollars. The work included new flooring and lighting in all parts of the school as well as establishment of a “pod” classroom, refurbishing of the art room and construction of a new library, the Lonnie Reed Media Center.
Since 1892, Beye School has had only eight principals. Minnie Whitham became principal in that year, serving until 1922, when she retired and was succeeded by E. L. Hebal, who was described by a former pupil as “beloved, if slightly aloof. ” Hebal was principal until 1935 when Emma Wandschneider took over. She retired in 1943, giving over the reins to Lonnie Reed, Reed, too, was Beye principal for thirty years, retiring in 1973 as a beloved and respected educator, known as the “dean of Oak Park principals. ” Elsie Harley became principal in 1973, serving until September, 1977, when she was succeeded by Thomas M. O’Loughlin, who served as principal until 1987, when Susan Cruttenden Gibson became the principal. Mrs. Gibson retired in 2002 and Jonathan Ellwanger became the principal of Beye School. ”Mr. E.”, as he is affectionately known, taught general and instrumental music at Beye for fifteen years before becoming principal.
Today, four hundred and twenty five children attend William Beye School on the corner of Ontario and Cuyler in Oak Park. They are taught by twenty one homeroom teachers who are assisted by more than a dozen specialists.
