The History of Glenwood School for Boys Glenwood (population 9,000) is located in northeastern Illinois about 25 miles south of the Chicago Loop, near the Cook County Forest Preserves. The development of the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad was a big reason why the community was developed since it was the site of a depot, coal yard, and a place for switching tracks back in the 1870’s and 1880’s. Glenwood was incoporated in 1903, and can be reached by Interstate 394 runs east of Glenwood, while Illinois 1 is to the west. Train service on Metra is also available for those who need to come into Chicago. The Glenwood School for Boys opened up in in 1887 as the Illinois Industrial Training School for Boys in north suburban Norwood Park, which was opened by Robert Todd Lincoln (son of the 16th President, Abraham Lincoln) and Oscar Dudley, an agent from the Illinois Humane Society, after finding that there were more neglected children on the streets than stray animals. The school was a residential facility for boys only to learn the trades, while also receiving military-style training. Two years later, the school moved to its current location south of Chicago when board member Milton George donated his farm, Rural Glen. The school’s name changed to Glenwood School for Boys in 1948. In the early 1940’s, the school began offering freshmen and sophomore classes to its students, who may have come thru its vocational-based grade school. Eventually, a junior and senior year were offered so that boys could graduate from the high school department at Glenwood, but it stopped having high school classes in 1979. Today, Glenwood still offers grade school classes to boys as well as girls, but its high school-aged students can go to either Bloom Township or Marian Catholic High Schools in Chicago Heights to receive their diplomas. Students no longer need to board at the school as day students are now accepted, although those that attend come from broken or low-income homes. Glenwood also has a campus in St. Charles that opened in 1994, but those students attend St. Edward’s High School in Elgin. More about the school can be found at this link: http://www.glenwoodschool.org/.
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