Henry Clay School

Webster School

         Henry Clay School was founded in 1886 and was originally named Daniel Webster School.  This was three years after the community of Hegewisch was started.  The school board built it in an area of swamp land around the waters of Hyde Lake which was given to them by A. Hegewisch.  This lake connected Chicago's East Side neighborhood with Hegewisch. The school was a storefront that later gave way to a small four story building.  6 teachers and a principal, Miss Helen Close, were some of the first staff to be employed in Henry Clay.  Clay also had the first parent teacher association in Chicago.  Mrs. John Patterson was its first president.  In 1916, they added four more rooms.  Many people believed that it was the oldest school in Hegewisch, but other people say that there were two schools before Henry Clay School was built. 

Henry Clay School

          In June 1917, there was a fire that destroyed most of the 8 rooms that made up the school.  In September 1917, the community built another school behind the old one, and named it Henry Clay in honor of Henry Clay, a famous American statesman of the nineteenth century.  In 1928, they built a building almost equal in size that was added to form the school that stands to this day.  Clay became the first public school  to serve the community of Hegewisch. 
          Clay has a gymnasium, a library, a lunch room, and there is a speech center for the foreign language speaking students.  The school is located between 132nd and 133rd in Burley Street.  Today, Henry Clay School is the largest school in Hegewisch. 

Click on the links at the left to tour
Chicago's Hegewisch Community.