Girls' High School (Boston, Massachusetts)

Girls' High School is a defunct secondary school that was located at various times in the Downtown Boston, South End and Roxbury sections of Boston, Massachusetts. The first public high school for young women in the United States,[1] it was founded in 1852 as the Normal School for girls to be trained as primary school teachers. It was initially located above a public library in the former Adams schoolhouse on Mason Street.[2] In 1854, the school's name was changed to the Girls' High and Normal School.[3]

Girls' High School
Address
West Newton Street

Boston
,
Massachusetts

United States
Information
TypePublic
EstablishedSeptember 1852 (1852-09)
Closed1981
CampusUrban
AffiliationBoston Public Schools
External view of the high school in the 1920s

In 1869, construction began for a purpose-built school building, located on Newton Street between Tremont and Shawmut Avenue. That building was designed for just under 1000 students, with 8 classrooms, 15 recitation rooms, 3 studios, chemical, physical, and botanical laboratories, and a hall, as well as facilities dedicated to the Girls' Latin School. This building was formally dedicated on April 19, 1871. By 1903, the high school's share of this space was described as insufficient in the Boston Globe.[2]

The school became co–educational in the latter half of the 20th century. By spring 1974, the school housed 500 female students and 200 male students. That spring, the Boston School Committee voted to change the school's name to Roxbury High School. This name was the most popular among petitioning students.[4]

Roxbury High closed in 1981, and the school building was later occupied by the Dearborn Middle School, now Dearborn STEM Academy.[5][6]

Notable alumnae

Heads of school

incomplete list

  • Loring Lothrop, 1852–1856[14]
  • William H. Seavey, 1856–1868
  • Ephraim Hunt, 1868–1872
  • Samuel Eliot, 1872–1876
  • Homer B. Sprague, 1876–1885
  • John Tetlow, 1885–1907[15]
  • Albert Perry Walker, 1907–1911
  • Myron W. Richardson, 1911–1925
  • John E. Denham, 1925[14]
  • Raymond J. Gemmel, 1966[16]
  • Charles F. Ray, 1981 [5]

Locations
  • Mason Street, Downtown Boston
  • 85 West Newton Street, South End
  • 36 Winthrop Street, Roxbury[5]

References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Girls' High School (Boston, Massachusetts).
  1. "Girls' High School 75 Years Old", Boston Globe, November 10, 1927
  2. "Fiftieth Anniversary of the Girls' High School", Boston Globe, January 12, 1903
  3. "Old School Ties That Bind", Boston Globe, October 25, 1998
  4. "School committee votes name change for Girls High", Boston Globe, March 29, 1974
  5. "Graduation is Valedictory For Roxbury High", Boston Globe, June 10, 1981
  6. "Student Records Locator" (PDF). City of Boston. Retrieved 12 January 2014.
  7. Ogilvie, Marilyn; Harvey, Joy, eds. (2000). The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives from Ancient Times to the Mid-20th Century. London: Routledge. pp. 336–337.
  8. Shannon, Hope J. (2014). Legendary Locals of Boston's South End. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing. p. 63. Retrieved 27 September 2014.
  9. Smith, Jessie Carney, ed. (1996). Notable Black American Women, Book 2. p. 152-153. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
  10. "School of Dental Medicine, Tufts University: 2009 Archives" (PDF). Tufts University. Retrieved 27 September 2014.
  11. "Girls' High School Alumnae Plans Centennial for 1952", Boston Globe, June 17, 1951
  12. "Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins (1859-1930)". blackpast.org.
  13. "Graduation at Girls' High School". The Boston Globe. 1916-06-22. p. 9. Retrieved 2022-03-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. "Library of Girls High School Has Delightfully Feminine Air", Boston Globe, April 4, 1934
  15. Woods, Lucy R. (1904). A History of the Girls' High School of Boston: 1852-1902. Riverside Press. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
  16. "R.J. Gemmel, Ex-Principal Of Girls High", Boston Globe, February 27, 1969

42°20′26.027″N 71°4′32.04″W

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