The Avery Coonley School is situated on 14 wooded acres adjacent to a forest preserve in Downers Grove, Illinois. The grounds and buildings reflect the warm and comfortable atmosphere desired by its founder, Mrs. Avery Coonley.

The main building consists of four horizontal buildings that surround a courtyard and a reflection pool. Many of the classrooms open onto the courtyard providing the students with the opportunity to enjoy the natural setting of the school. A second building at the school’s main entrance houses the Preschool Program.

Outside the classroom area are playgrounds, a field for playing sports, a swimming pool, and numerous maple trees from which the students tap maple syrup as an annual tradition. Also dotted about the campus are the representations of the school’s mascot, the sea horse. Mrs. Coonley chose this symbol for its posture and vertical swimming quality to show the school's spirit of onward and upward!

While the current facility was built in 1929, Mrs. Coonley opened her first school in 1906 in Riverside, Illinois. In honor of the founding of Mrs. Coonley’s first school, this year the school is celebrating it’s Centennial. For more information about the school’s history, click here.