Old Town School of Folk Music history

In 1968, the School purchased and moved into a 13,000 square foot building at 909 West Armitage Avenue.

In 1982, the School's staff and Board began a broad series of institutional changes that increased management effectiveness, placed a higher emphasis on fundraising, and expanded the scope of programming to include ethnic and traditional music from around the world.

Since being replaced by the Sulzer Branch in 1985, it had been left empty and neglected, but the OTSFM staff immediately recognized that it was, in Jim Hirsch’s words, “dynamite.”

By 1987, the School was able to renovate the Armitage Avenue facility, a renovation that contributed to a surge in the School's popularity.

Chosen by the city as the preferred recipient, the School began planning and soliciting support to expand operations to the new facility in late 1994.

Gail’s first task was to survey the student body (an astonishing 85% of whom had started only since 1995). While nearly half were undeterred by the move, and only "old-timers" held serious concerns, in the end, only 2% did not follow the school to Lincoln Square.

A flurry of attention from local and national media attended the grand opening of the Old Town School in 1998, beginning with the first annual Folk and Roots Festival, held just down the street in Welles Park every July for the next 13 years.

Historically a family-oriented, German neighborhood, Lincoln Square had diversified ethnically in recent decades, though it was still two-thirds white by 2000, with Hispanics and Asians accounting for the remaining third—an unusual demographic for Chicago.