Visitation School is located at 900 West Garfield Boulevard, one of the South Side’s most historic streets. It is one block west of Halsted Avenue, a major north/south artery in the city, and is approximately 15 blocks east of the Dan Ryan Expressway (Interstate 90/94). The school serves 245 students in pre-school through eighth grade

Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters have staffed Visitation since the school was established in 1891, when six sisters left their Wisconsin motherhouse to hold classes for 170 boys and girls crowded into the church basement. The enrollment increased every week, requiring more and more improvised space. In 1903, a school building was finally erected to meet the growing need of the parish. For the early part of the century, Visitation was the center of the Irish Catholic immigrant society that flourished on the South Side of the city. Life along “The Boulevard” was vibrant. The parish school grew to serve between 1200 to 2000 students from 1905 to 1965, and a girls’ High School opened in 1915. Enrollment at the grammar school reached a high of 2,211 students in 1965.

However, the turmoil that scarred much of the South Side in the 1960’s and 70’s affected Visitation as well. The flight of white, Catholic families out of the neighborhood began in the late 1960s, replaced first by Hispanic immigrants, and then African American families. The population of the parish school declined as Catholic families left the area. By 1970, there were 806 students enrolled at Visitation, and ten years after serving over 2000 students, the population fell to 415. The high school closed in 1980, and the grammar school moved into the high school building. In 1988, the grade school enrollment dropped to an all-time low of 218 students. The next year, the population rose to 288, and continued to climb to a high of 350 students in 1999. Current enrollment is about 245 students.

Today Visitation offers before and after-school care programs, an athletic program featuring boys’ and girls’ sports including flag football, basketball and track. Other activities include two Gospel choirs, Liturgical Dancers and leadership opportunities in the Junior Scholars and Student Leader Programs. The school building has 13 classrooms, a Music room, gymnasium, library, lunchroom, auditorium, a designated “No Child Left Behind” computer lab and the Frank and Frances Guinta Computer Learning Center. Ninety-nine percent of the students attending Visitation are African-American, and most come from the surrounding communities of New City, Englewood and West Englewood. Visitation Catholic School welcomes all children regardless of race, creed, color or national origin.