NileHiLite Collection

The first dedicated public high school building in Skokie was opened in 1939. What was then known as Niles Township High School, or “NileHi”, was located at 7701 North Lincoln Avenue, where Oakton Community College now stands, and was built using WPA (Works Progress Administration) funds and labor. High school classes had been held in the Lincoln Elementary School beginning in 1931. Before then, most children in the area ended their schooling in the elementary grades.

Following the population boom of the 1950s and 1960s, two new public high schools, Niles Township West (1958) and Niles Township North (1964), were opened, in addition to several new elementary schools. A change in housing stock and demographics in the 1970s resulted in the closing of Niles Township East, also known as Niles East, in 1980, though the other two high schools remain open to this day.

November 1939 saw the beginning of the publication of the NileHiLite, a school newspaper written, edited, and published by the students in the school’s journalism class. Over the years, newspaper varied in length, from 2 to 18 pages, and frequency, from 13 to 17 times per school year, documenting  school life of Skokie teenagers for four decades.

The Skokie Public Library has digitized over 400 issues of the NileHiLite from our own collection and from the Skokie Historical Society, but our collection is not complete.

Use the links below or to the left to browse the PDFs in our digital collection.