Lucy Flower Technical High School for Girls

Lucy Flower Technical High School for Girls is a historic school building at 3545 W. Fulton Boulevard in the East Garfield Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. It was built in 1927 as a larger home for the school of the same name, which was founded in 1911. Named for Lucy Flower, the school was the only all-female public high school in Chicago. Intended to parallel all-male schools such as Lane Tech and Crane Tech, Flower Tech combined vocational training and home economics in its curriculum. John C. Christensen, the Chicago Board of Education's chief architect, designed the school in the Collegiate Gothic style; inspired by English schools such as the University of Cambridge and University of Oxford, the style was a popular choice for schools at the time.[2]

Lucy Flower Technical High School for Girls
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location	3545 W. Fulton Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois
Coordinates	41°53′11″N 87°42′56″W
Built	1927
Architect	John C. Christensen
Architectural style	Gothic Revival
NRHP reference No.	100000960[1]
Added to NRHP	May 8, 2017

As the school accepted students from all parts of Chicago rather than a single neighborhood, it was one of the few schools to provide an integrated education in the heavily segregated city. The school still suffered from racial discrimination, however, as black girls could not specialize in beauty courses and the school had only white faculty. In addition, black students often viewed the home economics portion of the school's curriculum as preparation for domestic service work, leading to resentment between black students who sought vocational training and white students who specialized in home economics to become homemakers. Racial discrimination contributed to the decline of the school in the 1960s, as white flight and shifts in school funding left schools like Flower Tech that served black students underfunded. The school also changed its name and admission standards in the 1960s, resulting in a perceived decline in its prestige, and the opening of another nearby vocational school hurt its enrollment. The school became coeducational in 1978 and closed in 2004.[2] At the end of its period as a school it was known as the Al Raby School.[3]

The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 8, 2017.[1]

References

1. "Weekly List of Actions Taken on Properties: 5/8/2017 Through 5/12/2017". National Park Service. Retrieved September 21, 2019.
2. Oram, Ruby (June 1, 2016). "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Lucy Flower Technical High School for Girls" (PDF). Illinois Historic Preservation Division. Retrieved September 21, 2019.
3. "Home". Al Raby School. 2009-03-08. Retrieved 2020-10-21. Al Raby School | 3545 W. Fulton Blvd. | Chicago, IL 60624 - Address matches that of the building.