Crane was founded as a males-only school at 12th Street andMichigan Avenue in 1890. It was originally known as theEnglish High and Manual Training School.[5] In 1903, the school moved to its present location and was renamed in honor of businessmanRichard T. Crane.[6] When the school went co-ed in 1954, it began to de-emphasize its "technical" label, though it continued to offer courses like auto shop and drafting.[5] Between 1911 and 1969, the school shared its building withCrane College, the firstjunior college in Chicago. The college moved out in 1969 and is now known asMalcolm X College.[7] On November 30, 2011,Chicago Public Schools CEOJean-Claude Brizard announced that Crane, along with several other schools, would either be closed or phased out. Under this plan, Crane would remain open but no longer accept freshman students, who would be routed instead to eitherWells,Manley,Marshall, orFarragut.[8] In April 2012, however, Brizard announced that Crane would be retained and redeveloped into a health sciences high school.[9] Crane High School previously housedChicago Talent Development Charter High School during the 2012-13 academic year, prior to Chicago Talent's closure the following year.
Crane became a charter member of theChicago Public League in 1913.[5] Since then, it has won eleven city titles in boys'basketball (1921, 1928, 1929, 1931, 1932, 1940, 1957, 1964, 1968, 1972, 2003).[10][11] The school has produced a number of professional basketball players (see below).
Walter J. Hamming (1911–1975), was a meteorologist for the Army Air Corp in World War II who supported the June 6, 1944 Normandy invasion and later worked for the Los Angeles Air Quality Management District where he established the chemical relationship of smog and automobile emissions and advocated automotive industry accountability.
Philip Shapiro Lesly, class of 1936, was editor of the Crane student newspaper, then the only daily high school newspaper in the U.S. Went on to Northwestern (editor of Daily Northwestern) and then a long career as an author and public relations theorist. The Philip Lesly Co. was among the largest U.S. pr agencies in the 1960s and 1970s.
^ab"Crane Facts",Chicago Sun-Times, p. 94, December 4, 1991
^"Biography - J. Allen Hynek (1910-1986)",J. Allen Hynek Papers at Northwestern University Archives, series 11/3/5/6 (Box 1): 1, 2002, retrievedSeptember 5, 2010,Josef Allen Hynek was born May 1, 1910 in Chicago to Czechoslovakian parents. He graduated from Crane Technical High School in 1927 and went on to the University of Chicago ...
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