About New Sullivan

When William K. Sullivan Elementary School was opened, it was housed in a handsome brick building that was constructed in 1902.  Sullivan Elementary was located at 8255 South Houston.  It was needed to educate the children of immigrant steel workers who were drawn to the South Chicago neighborhood by the South Works of the United States Steel Corporation.   Many of New Sullivan’s current students have parents and grandparents who graduated from Sullivan Elementary. 

The school was originally named for William K. Sullivan (1843—1899), an Irish immigrant who became an Illinois Legislator, Managing Editor of the Chicago Evening Journal, and President of the Chicago Board of Education.  After one hundred years of being located at 8255 South Houston, Sullivan Elementary School was relocated to a new building at 8331 South Mackinaw Avenue designed by architects Fox & Fox.  

The Board of Education retained the historic, original structure, converting it into a public charter high school, Epic High School.  The new building opened in the winter of 2002 and was renamed William K. New Sullivan Elementary School.  New Sullivan Elementary School currently serves over 500 regular and special needs students from throughout the South Chicago Community.

https://newsullivan.cps.edu/index.html

South Chicago Neighborhood

Situated at the mouth of the Calumet River, South Chicago first evolved as a rural settlement for fishermen and farmers.  Settlers included Irish Catholics, who established St. Patrick's parish in 1857. South Chicago's location at the intersection of river and railroad transportation routes fostered early growth.

Following the Great Fire of 1871, industry migrated south from Chicago proper.  The Brown Iron and Steel Company opened its doors on the Calumet in 1875, followed by the South Works of North Chicago Rolling Mill Company in 1880. South Works provided the steel that fortified many of the city's landmarks, such as the Sears Tower and McCormick Place.

After World War II, refugees from Serbia and Croatia came to South Chicago, and its racial and ethnic composition began to shift as the descendants of earlier European immigrants left for the south suburbs. By the 1980s, African Americans constituted almost half of the population, and Latinos, many recent immigrants from Mexico, nearly 40 percent. Concurrently, South Works endured a prolonged shutdown of its facilities. Though the union attempted to restore the mill's economic viability by agreeing to many concessions, USX, successor to U.S. Steel, closed South Works in April 1992, preferring to concentrate production at its larger, nearby Gary Works.

South Works' decline damaged local businesses. The South Chicago community reached out to city leaders to support redevelopment schemes, including a new airport, a plan to host the summer Olympics, and new enterprise zones, all without ultimate success. In 1998 urban planners began a new study of the area's potential for redevelopment