Saint Ignatius College Prep is a private, coeducational Jesuit college-preparatory school located in the Near West Side neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. The school was founded in Chicago in 1869 by Fr. Arnold Damen, S.J., a Dutch missionary to the United States. Saint Ignatius College Prep is Chicago’s flagship Jesuit high school and one of the preeminent Catholic college preparatory schools in the United States.

Campus

Saint Ignatius College Prep is designated on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. The school's main building was designed by Canadian architect Toussaint Menard in Second Empire style and opened in 1870. The original school building is one of only five existing Chicago structures to predate the Great Fire of 1871. The school began on two acres of land and now occupies a 26-acre campus. The campus includes the original building and modern facilities adjacent to the University of Illinois at Chicago, and is located 1.5 miles southwest of Chicago’s Loop. Among the unique spaces is the 1887-88 Brunswick Room featuring elaborate cabinets and woodwork installed by the Brunswick Company for the school’s natural history museum, the Foglia Library, the “Chicago gallery” of architectural artifacts in the Driehaus building, and Father Damen’s office. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977, St. Ignatius College Prep was designated a Chicago Landmark in 1987.

History

Inception

In 1836, the Dutch Jesuit Fr. Arnold Damen, S.J. (March 20, 1815, Leur, Netherlands – January 1, 1890, Omaha, Nebraska), was recruited to work with Native Americans in the Dakotas by Fr. Peter De Smet, S.J. In 1844 he was ordained a priest in Missouri. In 1857, Damen was first assigned to Chicago to start a parish for Irish immigrants on Chicago's near-West Side, then an area of the sprawling prairie. The construction of the Holy Family Church was completed in 1860. The culmination of Father Arnold J. Damen, S.J.'s work in Chicago, the St. Ignatius campus was opened in 1870 as St. Ignatius College. Loyola University originated from this institution but, since 1922, St. Ignatius has operated solely as a college preparatory school. The Second Empire-style edifice is among the oldest in the city, a rare and distinctive example of institutional designs pre-dating the Chicago Fire of 1871.

Admissions

Demographics

The demographic breakdown by race/ethnicity of the 1,373 students enrolled for the 2019–2020 school year was:

Extracurricular activities

Athletics

Saint Ignatius competes in the Chicago Catholic League (CCL) and the Girls Catholic Athletic Conference (GCAC) and is a member of the Illinois High School Association (IHSA), which governs most sports and competitive activities in the state. The school's teams are stylized as the "Wolfpack".

Notable alumni

Notable faculty