Historic Edward Wyman School in St. Louis is one of the many designed by William B. Ittner

Edward Wyman School building, St. Louis, Missouri.Photo byOscar C. Kuehn, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

The historic Edward Wyman School is located at 1547 South Teresa in St. Louis, Missouri. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 2, 1992. This school was constructed in 1900-1901.

The architectural style of the building is Tudor Revival: Jacobethan. The foundation is stone and limestone and the walls are brick. The school was designed by William B. Itter (1864-1936), a prominent architect in St. Louis.

The Wyman School closed in 2007 but reopened in 2015 to house a new magnet high school of the Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience (CSMB). It's currently home to the Nahed Chapman New American Academy (K-5).

About the building

Wyman School was named after Edward Wyman (1815-1888). Wyman was an educator and member of the St. Louis Board of Education. The school building is near Saint Louis University Medical School and Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital.

The two-story school building was constructed using an E-shaped plan. The front of the building faces a residential neighborhood and is set far back from the street. This was architect Ittner's first school to incorporate landscaping.

The building has a raised basement and an attic which may give the appearance that it's larger than it is. The basement windows in the rear of the building and side elevations were infilled with brick.

When the building was nominated for the National Register, a lot of the original character was still retained in the interior. There were changes made, however. The transoms of the interior doors were filled in with wood and the original doors were replaced. The hardwood floors were intact.

This school building is important due to its architecture and the architect. It's said that this school is recognized as the first E-plan, or open plan, school. Ittner's goals was to have the most light and air entering the building. Ittner was also the Commissioner of School Buildings for the St. Louis Board of Education.

There were around 590 students attending grades kindergarten through five at this school. Basically, the elementary schools Ittner subsequently designed have a similar plan. Once you become familiar with an Ittner designed school, you can nearly know which schools in St. Louis he designed. An iron fence, a long walkway, and short flights of steps are in front of the building.

The building still stands and still serves as a school.

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