Every week we publish a historic photo highlighting a story from Naperville’s past from the history archives of Naper Settlement.
Plans for Naper Academy, where students were educated for decades, were launched March 15, 1850, when the Napervile Academy Association began its official fundraising campaign to build a school.
Members started with $2,000 they’d already collected, and soon secured the additional $4,000 needed for the design and construction costs. They began with one story, added a second story in 1851 and completed the exterior — with belfry — in 1852.
Among those contributing to the cause was the local Masons organization, which paid $700 for a room on the second floor that served as their Masonic Lodge.
The first day of school was Dec. 8, 1853. The Rev. Nelson Atkins served as principal, overseeing 50 tuition-paying students primarily from Naperville and Lisle, with a few coming from Wisconsin.
Initially, the school was intended for children in advanced grades but elementary classes were added later.
After one year, Charles Richmond replace Atkins as principal. It was a job he would hold for 13 years.
In the early years, rooms at Naper Academy were used for various purposes. In addtion to the Masons, the Odd Fellows also had a lodge there. And when Sturger’s Brewery was destroyed by fire in 1854, it became a place where malt was stored.
An 1857 newspaper advertisement describes the school as being available for boarders and day scholars.
“Rooms are now fitted up in the building expressly for the accommodation of Young Lady Boarders, who will be under the supervision of competent Female Teachers,” the ad said.
The Lutheran Society held church services in the building until they purchased the Evangelical Church building in 1859.
The school had two semesters in 1858-59 academic year, with the fall semester running from Sept. 15 to Christmas Eve and the 11-week winter term starting Jan. 4. By 1860, there were about 300 students enrolled.
It became a free graded school by special charter from the state on June 13, 1863.
There were a few skirmishes over the years. In 1904, 51 citizens signed a petition requesting the election of a school board and for $4,000 to be spent on school improvements, including plumbing and electricity.
While voters soundly rejected both, change did arrive shortly thereafter. A board of education was established in 1905; water pipes and toilets installed in 1906; and electricity available by 1909.
In 1911, Naper Academy and Ellsworth School came together to form one school district. According to a description of the event in a school catalog: “During the past year the citizens of Naperville have made history by uniting the two school districts in this city. As a result of that union there will be hereafter but one public school system in Naperville.”
Under the new structure, the high school occupied the entire second floor of Naper Academy.
By 1927, the growing population dictated the need for a new school. Supt. Ralph Beebe asked for a $50,000 bond issue to build the new school, which voters approved.
To make room for the larger, more modern Naper School, Naper Academy met its demise at the end of the wrecking ball in 1928.
Hannah Ditzler, a pupil and teacher at Naper Academy, wrote a six-volume diary that provides insight into how things operated at the school.
Her earliest memories are found in the diary’s first volume.
“The examinations were held at the close of the winter term. This is my earliest recollection of the academy. Our whole family went. Andrew Cable took my sister Libbie. … I remember being seated in her lap and gazed with wonder on the stage erected and ornamented with evergreen boughs and roses made of colored tissue paper,” she wrote, noting that she could see through the lathed walls.
In 1865, Ditzler enrolled in high school but was asked to teach elementary school because there were so many students. She was paid $3.50 a week, which later increased to $6.
In 1867, she received her teaching certificate but it’s unlikely she was completely prepared for her first official day of school when 72 students filled her room.
“Some had to stand in the aisle, and when they were tired, others stood,” she wrote.
The next year she had 87 students. She installed benches in the aisles that left very little room for other classroom activities.
Ditzler worked as a full-time teacher until 1873, but she continued to serve as substitute. She would go on to serve as the librarian at Nichols Library from 1898 to 1905.
Watching the demolition of Naper Academy was hard, she wrote.
“The wrecking of the Academy was a sore trial for me. All my life I have seen it before my eyes. I attended school there from a child of 5. And taught there 10 years or more, was connected with all its social functions. Have the names of its many early pupils and teachers. The wrecking also wrecked my life,” she wrote.
Despite that, Ditzler agreed to write a history of Naper Academy for the March 1928 cornerstone ceremony for Naper School.
Andrea Field is the curator of history at Naper Settlement. For more information, go to www.NaperSettlement.org. Steve Metsch is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.
