St. Ignatius College Prep

St. Ignatius College Prep. is a private Jesuit Catholic college prep school located near downtown Chicago, Illinois. It was founded in 1869 by Father Arnold Damen, for whom famous north-south Damen Avenue in Chicago was named. It is a diocesan school under the authority of the Archdiocese of Chicago.

St. Ignatius is located several miles Southwest of downtown Chicago in what was previously open prairie next to swampy grasslands. Father Arnold was originally criticized for choosing a location for Holy Family Parish far from worshippers, but he replied "I shall not go to the people; I shall draw the people to me."^[1] St. Ignatius is now in the heart of the city, located a few miles from Old St. Pat's Catholic Church, an important center of Irish Catholic culture in Chicago. It is just a few blocks north of the University of Illinois at Chicago and its new University Village development of the former Maxwell Street area.

1. ↑ http://www.ignatius.org/jesuit_history.aspx