Austin Community Academy High School was a public high school located at 231 N Pine Avenue in the Austin community on the west side of Chicago, Illinois. The school opened in 1890,[1] and was named after Henry W. Austin, a local real estate developer[2] The online newsletter Chicago-Catalyst.org called it the yellow brick fortress. The campus is now home to three smaller schools.
The main entrance was located on the west side at 231 N Pine Ave, which bounds the western edge of the school property. The school was bounded on the north by W Fulton St where one parking lot is located. N Long Ave bounds the eastern side of the school property and is adjacent to the athletic fields and has an entrance to the south parking lot. The school is bounded to the south by W. West End Ave. N Lotus Avenue is interrupted by the school grounds which span 2 city blocks. The school building is located on the western block of the school property, while the athletic fields and south parking lot occupy the eastern block. If N Lotus Ave were a through street, it would bisect the school property with the school building on the west and athletic fields on the east side. The school building itself is a four story yellow brick building featuring two central courtyards. These open air courtyards flank a central corridor which runs north and south inside the larger outer building which covers approximately one city block.
During the mid-twentieth century, Austin High was considered one of the best high schools in the Chicago area.[3] In later years, however, Austin suffered from low test scores, low attendance, and student violence. The Chicago Public Schools began phasing it out in 2004, ordering the school to stop admitting new freshman.[4] The last graduations were held in June 2007 and the phase-out was completed by the end of summer, 2007.[5] Many of the old school records from 1890 to 1970 are now preserved at the Chicago Public Library in the Special Collections for Community History.
As part of the Renaissance 2010 program, the school's campus was then converted into three smaller high schools: Austin Business and Entrepreneurship Academy, which opened in 2006; Austin Polytechnical Academy, which opened in 2007,[6] and VOISE Academy, which opened in 2008. (VOISE stands for "Virtual Opportunities Inside a School Environment"; the school combines an online curriculum with classroom instruction.)[7]
Austin Polytechnical Academy and Austin Business and Entrepreneurship Academy share an athletic program, and their teams are nicknamed the Tigers.[8]
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In 1937, Austin High School's football team played Leo Catholic High School in the Chicago Prep Bowl at Soldier Field. Austin was led by star running back Bill DeCorrevont, one of the best known high school athletes of his day.[9] The attendance was estimated to be as high as 130,000[10]—possibly the largest crowd to ever attend an American football game.[11] (Sources vary on the exact figure, however; the Illinois High School Association provides an estimate of 110,000 attendees.) Austin won 26-0.[10]
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