History in Roseland

For a brief history of Christian Fenger High School, we turn to the school's official website: "The forerunner of Fenger High School, Kensington Elementary, was a six room, grade and high school level school built in 1853 on the corner of 116th St. and Michigan Avenue.  In 1894, Curtis Elementary and High School was opened.  Curtis was renamed Christian Fenger High School in 1916.  Sixteen years later, in November, 1926, after two years of construction, the present Fenger Academy High School was opened and was dedicated a few months later on June 3, 1927 at 11220 South Wallace Street.  It was built to accommodate 2,200 students and is now home to nearly 3,000."

Fenger's most notable alumni are Sammy Esposito, a Chicago White Sox shortstop third baseman who played in the 1959 World Series, boxer Montell Julian Griffin, who handed Roy Jones Jr. his first professional defeat, and prohibition agent Eliot Ness, who was famous for his efforts to enforce Prohibition in Chicago and was portrayed by Kevin Costner in the 1993 film "The Untouchables."