Does anyone remember the portable grade schools that some of us attended in Mount Greenwood, Chicago? Or have a photo? The photo above is a portable unit but I don't think ours looked like it.
Some of us went to the first four grades of school at units we called "Portables". They were used to accommodate the baby boom who began starting school in 1950.
Our school was on 103rd at Hamlin. I think ours were World War II barracks converted to classrooms which would make sense since there would have been an abundance of unused barracks and a dramatic need for school space to accommodate the baby boom children.
I think there were two buildings each containing two classrooms, with washrooms dividing the two classrooms. We had one classroom each for the first four grades. I think they had wooden floors and desks.
But I would not bet the farm on my 4th grade memory.
Anyone remember it differently, or have a photo?
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We did not call them Willis Wagons. This term came into use after our school was built.
“Willis Wagons” was the pejorative term for portable school classrooms used by critics of Superintendent of Schools Benjamin C. Willis (1953–1966) when protesting school overcrowding and segregation in black neighborhoods from 1962 to 1966.
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