Willowbrook High School History

Below are pictures of Ardmore and Roosevelt Roads from 1914-1920, before Willowbrook was built.

Ornate pillars marked the Ardmore Avenue entrance to the Village of Ardmore in this view, circa 1915. "Ardmore" was how the subdivisions of Ardmore and Villa Park were incorporated from 1914-1917. The village name was changed to Villa Park in September 1917. (Photo courtesy of Villa Park Historical Society)	Livestock grazes peacefully just south of a traffic-free 12th Street (Roosevelt Road) and just west of Ardmore Avenue, sometime before 1920. At that time, farm animals were driven back and forth across 12th Stree via a small passageway under the road. (Photo courtesy of Villa Park Historical Society)

	Willowbrook Rises in the West View of school as seen from the north in July 1958 Photo courtesy of Willowbrook High School Library/Archives

The research, planning and decision-making that led to the opening of Willowbrook in September 1959 started in the late spring of 1950 when the Board of Education launched a study of residential growth in the District 88 communities. The board resolved in January 1958 that the new school be named Willowbrook and that it be occupied, all four grades, for the first time in September 1959." Helping shape the Willowbrook traditions was Student Advisory, a committee of incoming sophomores, juniors and seniors. They worked with Principal Herbster throughout the summer of 1959 to choose the school colors and athletic teams nickname; draft the constitution for the Student Council; and organize Willowbrook’s first Homecoming (October 9-10, 1959). The students in the school’s first years were subjected to a strict dress code that prohibited jeans, pants without belts, short skirts, and long hair (on the boys). Willowbrook was initially designed for an enrollment of 2,500. The building that opened for classes in September 1959 measured 383,880 square feet, had 436 rooms, more than 6,000 lockers, 294 miles of wiring, 33 miles of conduit, 47 fire hoses, and 168 clocks.
The terra cotta head of Thomas Jefferson, stuck in the southeast wall of Willowbrook (and minus its nose), originally ornamented the Louis Sullivan-designed Garrick Theatre in downtown Chicago. It was transferred to Willowbrook by Mike Venezia (Class of 1963). Mike’s father and uncle were contractors for the razing of the theatre building (1961), and Mike was able to retrieve the Jefferson head for Willowbrook.
The board awarded contracts in September 1962 for construction of the north wing on the Willowbrook building. This section was completed in the summer of 1963 and now contains the District 88 administrative offices, the Board of Education meeting room and the Community Education office on the first floor, and a number of classrooms and laboratories on the upper two floors. Aircraft construction was once part of the Willowbrook vocational education curriculum. Throughout the 1970’s, the northwest corner of Willowbrook was the center of aircraft construction work. Willowbrook’s enrollment was at or above the 3,000 level throughout the rest of the 1970’s, then declined in the following decades. In 1984, the fall enrollment was 2,259; by the fall of 1994, enrollment was 1,814. At Willowbrook, the bond issued financed construction of additional space for vocational education classes in the northwest section of the building, construction of the horticulture greenhouse, expansion of the school library, and remodeling of various offices and classrooms. In September 1989 the Warriors of Willowbrook started playing football under home lights.
	Why is it called Willowbrook High School? The name came naturally.....although Wil Shakespeare may have provided some of the inspiration in Hamlet when he has Queen Gertrude observe: "There is a willow grows aslant a brook, that shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream." (Act IV)
Thank you to Mr. Greg Mahoney for allowing us to use the above excerpts from his publication, DuPage High School District 88 History Lessons 1918-2001.