The Springfield Public School, built in 1871, closed as a school in 1934, which was 89 years ago as Father Pitt is writing. It was preserved because it was useful as a warehouse in the increasingly industrializing Strip. Later it became loft apartments, and is now being sold as luxury condos.

The architect was T. D. Evans, about whom old Pa Pitt knows nothing except that he designed the very similar (though more elaborate) Morse School on the South Side. Compare the two buildings: the Morse School is a little larger, but built on almost exactly the same plan.

Springfield Public School.

Morse School. Father Pitt guesses that the tower in the center of both buildings was a belfry.

If you buy an apartment in the Springfield Public School, you don’t have to walk far to find delicious Asian food of all sorts.