St. Ignatius College Prep

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. 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.