Helen Taylor Bush held her first preschool and kindergarten class in the living room of her home on Dorffel Drive. There were six students from the immediate neighborhood.

Helen was a former teacher who earned her degree in 1902 from University of Illinois at Urbana. She began teaching again in her home when her husband, John Bush, suffered an unknown illness that prevented him from continuing to work for his long-time employer. In response and at the urging of a neighbor, Helen launched her school to create a new source of income.

“She would explain about natural things. She made you look and realize the order of things in nature, the kinds of birds, the virtues of bugs” reminisces Ward Beecher, one of the first students of Mrs. Bush’s School.