Garrison School Lofts. 

Public School Buildings
A Work in Progress

Schools: Top Left: 1.Thomas  Garrison, built 1887 (now a loft apartment complex); 2. Henry Freeman, built 1899 (now a business complex);    3.Charles Jackson, built 1904 (now a charter school) named for first 20th century mayor of Rockford; Bottom Left: 4. John Nelson, built 1908 (scheduled for close at the end of 2015-2016 year) named for inventor of sock knitting machine. He started thriving knitting industry in Rockford that lasted for over 100 years. 5. P.R. Walker, built 1912 (scheduled for close) named for first school superintendent of Rockford's east-west consolidated school district. 6. Lewis Lemon, built 1993 (named for Rockford's first black pioneer and a founder of Rockford).

EARLY  SCHOOLS

JOHN HALL SCHOOL
1866 - First Ward School
(no picture of First Ward School)
1884 - Renamed Hall School
1892 - New building erected
2003 - Hall School demolished

PictureJohn Hall (1808-1882)
John H. Hall (1808-1882) was a local business man and an active proponent of schools. He served as a School  Agent and then a school board member. He was a First Ward alderman credited with helping to build the east side and beautifying schools with shrubs and trees.
The property at Third and Prairie had been a school site from at least 1866. That was  when the first First Ward School was erected there.  It was renamed Hall School in 1884 and a new Hall School was erected in 1892. The building at right is the 1892 building. No picture has been found of the first First Ward School.  The school closed as a grade school in 1970 and became the Hall Adult Education Center in 1971. 

Hall School

The school was sold to Hugh Deery in 1982 and  to Ralph Littlefield in 1994. It was demolished in 2003.  Today the property is an open lot..
Hall School circa 1910 showing addition. Photo courtesy J. Gambrel
All that is left of Hall School is the chiseled stone sign from the school building.  It was placed at the northwest corner of the property along Third Street--pictures are before and after a little weeding., July, 2015.