William Hammerschmidt School is a focal point within its neighborhood. Surrounded by Lombard residential homes—and the people who live in them—the campus has been an integral part of the local landscape since the 1920s. Improving the campus environment will improve the quality of life in neighborhood by nurturing kids and adults alike with the beauty of nature and healthy lifestyle options.
The Present: Landscape Analysis—Water Drainage
One of the greatest issues the WHS outdoor campus environment experiences is major standing water following a rain event and overland scouring of the turf areas.
The "Drainage Analysis" drawing depicts where the low-lying and problem drainage areas are. Some of these areas are designated for play.
These same sometimes wet and muddy areas are traveled as students enter and exit the school each day. With the incorporation of new pathways students and families will have clear, well drained connections
to the building entries.
The Past: Reconnecting with Our History
William "Big Bill" Hammerschmidt (pictured, right foreground) was a 19th century Lombard businessman who built good fortune with his bricks
and tile company—on the land that was only good for cultivating clay.
In the 1920s, the family donated the land for a neighborhood school and Chicago architect, E. Norman Brydges was hired to design the building.
September 10, 1928 marked the first day of class at William Hammerschmidt Elementary. The school included six classrooms for grades 1-6 and two offices. The cost of construction was approximately $60,000.
The smoke stack, which still stands, was kept as part of the design to pay homage to the industrial spirit of the old Lombard Tile and Brick Company.
The Lombard Historical Society has many early Hammerschmidt artifacts and anticipates working together with the WHS Learn + Play Gardens team to communicate the historic stories of this place and its people into the new schoolyard.
Children learn best when they interact with their environment. When they can apply what they've learned inside the classroom—outside. When they understand how food is grown, how insects help the world, how water and air depend on us to keep them clean and how we can all live in harmony with the earth, we prepare them for a better, healthier and more environmentally rich future.
We prepare them for stewardship of the world we leave to them.
WHS Learn + Play Gardens: Where the
Past & the Present Cultivate Our Future