page_title: Gwendolyn Brooks College Preparatory Academy
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Gwendolyn Brooks College Preparatory Academy / History
caption_attribution_description: English: One of gwendolyn brooks college prep's indoor glass rotundas
context_page_description: Gwendolyn Brooks College Preparatory Academy is a public selective enrollment four-year magnet high school and middle school located in the Roseland community area, near the Pullman District on the far south side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Opened in 1998, The school is operated by Chicago Public Schools district. A university-preparatory school, Brooks is named for African-American poet Gwendolyn Brooks.
context_section_description: The site has been in use as a high school since 1915, though Brooks is the fourth high school to occupy the property. George Pullman, upon his death in 1897, bequeathed the sum of $1,200,000 to provide for the building and endowment of a "free school of manual training for the benefit of the children of persons living or employed at Pullman."  An additional bequest was made by Mrs. Pullman, and the Pullman Free School of Manual Training opened its doors on the site in September 1915. The first year class welcomed 106 boys and girls. Although the town of Pullman had by this time become part of the city of Chicago, the school successfully fulfilled the intentions of its founder by serving the children of employees of the Pullman car works and the Pullman-Roseland communities. It was widely recognized at the time for excellence in vocational instruction and effective training of its students, all of whom were concurrently enrolled in core academic subjects such as English, math, and science.
  By the late 1940s, the endowment that supported the school could no longer sustain the rising costs of the school's operation as it grew to a student enrollment of 600. According to Pullman's will, the school was prohibited from charging tuition. The school's board decided that the only practicable means of carrying out Pullman's intention was to divert the funds from the school into an educational scholarship foundation. The Free School closed in 1950. The school was immediately taken over by the Augustinians, who established Mendel Catholic High School. The Roman Catholic high school remained in operation from 1951–88. In 1988, Mendel was closed as the school's population dropped, and the property was sold to the Archdiocese of Chicago, which opened St. Martin de Porres High School. The diocesan school remained open only until 1997 because the school's population had continued to drop. The school and property were then sold to the Chicago Public Schools system, which opened the current school in 1998 as Southside College Preparatory Academy. In 2001, the school was named in honor of Gwendolyn Brooks, who was a South Side resident, former U.S. Poet Laureate, and consultant in poetry to the Library of Congress.
caption: One of the glass rotundas that anchor the main G.B.C.P.A. building
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "SANYO DIGITAL CAMERA", "Image Make": "SANYO Electric Co. Ltd.", "Image Model": "T1495", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "V1.04.US", "Image DateTime": "2011:10:19 00:20:38", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "286", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "32908", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4716", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/54", "EXIF FNumber": "29/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2011:10:19 00:20:38", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2011:10:19 00:20:38", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "144/25", "EXIF ApertureValue": "77/25", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "77/25", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "11/2", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4288", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3216", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "32784", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}