Meet us in the mansion of learning
Hogwarts isn't the only school inside a castle. Inside Oak Park's Hales Mansion, students of the Language and Music School receive private and semi-private lessons in music, language, academia and more.
Located in the the Frank Lloyd Wright Historic District, the 9,500-square-foot, castle-like structure is also known as International Mansion. Its more common name comes from its original owners: the Hales family. Grain magnate Burton F. Hales and his wife Frances commissioned local architect Henry Fiddelke in 1903 to design the Tudor Revival home. Fiddelke designed several residential and commercial buildings in the Oak Park and Forest Park villages, including the Forest Park Baptist Church, although he is not as well-known as his contemporaries and fellow Oak Park architects, Frank Lloyd Wright and George W. Maher.
The mansion was purchased in May 2019 by Emilia Marie Fermi and her son Brando Crawford, who converted the stately house into the new home of the Language and Music School, which they established in 1994.
Inside the school's nine classrooms, students are taught to play the piano, bass, cello and a variety of other instruments, including bagpipes! The school also offers voice lessons, as well as lessons in music theory, composition and arrangement, and has its own recording studio. For those who prefer to sing, there are voice lessons.
The school's language department is vast in its offerings. Students can take lessons in Spanish, German and French, as well as Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Italian, Latin, Arabic and Russian. The Language and Music School also provides lessons in English as a second language.
The Language and Music School's offerings extend beyond that which its name suggests. Drawing, painting and comic book illustration classes are available for budding artists. The technologically minded might find interest in the school's coding program and future stars of the stage and screen can hone their craft by taking lessons in acting, musical theater and audition preparation.
If you or your child needs a little extra help in core subjects, check out Language and Music School's tutoring program, wherein you can get one-on-one help with math, science, language arts, even ACT and SAT prep.
But that's not all! Through the school's alternative Spanish immersion program, kids ages 5 through 18 can participate in year-round, mixed age bilingual schooling, where education is customized to each student's needs.
Whether you take a tour of the school or just marvel at its beauty, the Hales Mansion will surely inspire you to stretch your own creative muscles!
One-on-one weekly classes are $248 for a month of learning. Preschool, Kindergarten, and Elementary School programs are about $2,000 per month.
Maria Emilia Fermi and her son, Brando Crawford, are the brains behind Oak Park’s Language and Music School. As the school grew in popularity and expanded its offerings, Fermi and Crawford needed a larger space.
The International Mansion and Oak Park’s Language and Music School are located at 509 N. Oak Park Avenue in the Frank Lloyd Wright Historic District. It’s a half-mile walk from the Oak Park stop on the Green Line of the CTA “L” or a 20-minute drive west of downtown Chicago.
