Whittier School was selected as one of the two Historic Sites of the Year for 2009. The other was it’s sister school Longfellow School, which was demolished in 2022.

Whittier School opened to 114 children on September 3, 1929. It was the second Downers Grove School built south of the railroad tracks. Named for the well known poet John Greenleaf Whittier, this school has proudly educated children for nearly 100 years.

These words from Whittier’s poem “The Little People” express this school’s love for children.

A dreary place would be this earth,
Were there no little people in it;
The song of life would lose its mirth,
Were there no children to begin it.