Miami Senior High School

Last updated

Miami Senior High School
Address
Miami Senior High School
2450 Southwest 1st Street

Miami
,
Florida
33135

United States
Information
School type Public, high school
MottoNon verbis sed operis (Not by words, but deeds)
Established1903 [1]
School district Miami-Dade County Public Schools
PrincipalBenny Valdés
Teaching staff128.00 (FTE) [2]
Grades 9–12
Enrollment2,845 (2018–19) [2]
Student to teacher ratio22.23 [2]
Color(s)Blue and gold   
Mascot"Whippy" the Stingaree [3] Mshslogo.png
Nickname Stingarees [4]
YearbookThe Miahi
Website www.miamiseniorhigh.org
Miami Senior High School
Miami Senior High School July 2013.jpg
Miami Senior High School, July 2013
Location map Miami.png
Red pog.svg
USA Florida location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Coordinates 25°46′16″N80°14′10″W / 25.7711°N 80.2360°W / 25.7711; -80.2360
Area19 acres (7.7 ha)
Built1928
Architect Kiehnel and Elliott
Architectural styleLate 19th- and 20th-century revivals, [5] Mediterranean Revival with Moorish elements
NRHP reference No. 90000881 [5]
Added to NRHPJune 18, 1990

Miami Senior High School, also known as Miami High School, is a public high school located at 2450 SW 1st Street in Miami, Florida, and operated by Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Founded in 1903, it is one of the oldest high schools in Miami-Dade County. The school building is famous for its architecture and is a historic landmark. Miami Senior High School has a rich alumni base, with many graduates of the high school going on to varied, prominent careers. The high school originally served the earliest settling families of Miami in the first half of the 20th century. By the late 1960s, with an increase in Miami's population, its student body grew at a fast pace.

Contents

History

Miami Senior High School was established in 1903 and was the first high school in what is now Miami-Dade County. Originally, high school classes took place in Miami's first schoolhouse, a two-story frame structure that was built in 1898 on what is now NE 1st Avenue, between 3rd and 4th Streets. This building, considered temporary, was a one-story frame bungalow addition built directly behind the existing schoolhouse. It opened its doors on September 18, 1905, with 29 girls and 20 boys in attendance. [6]

In 1909, the school board decided to build a new schoolhouse to again house all grammar and high school students together. In 1911, a new three-story concrete schoolhouse opened its doors. The original one-story high school building was moved to SW 12th Street and 1st Avenue, repainted, and opened as the Southside Elementary School. After a new Southside Elementary School was constructed in 1914, the original high school building fell into decades of neglect, operating as a boarding house for 90 years. It was "discovered" in 1983 by a local historian and, in January 2003, was moved to its current location in Southside Park, where it has since been renovated and opened as a community center. [6]

Miami Senior High School's current building is its fourth home. The school board selected a fifteen-acre campus in the middle of what was then a pine forest. Groundbreaking occurred early in 1926, but due to the Great Miami Hurricane of 1926, the school's opening was delayed. Finally finished in 1928, the building was designed in a Spanish Mediterranean style with Moorish and Byzantine details by Richard Kiehnel of Kiehnel and Elliott, one of the great early Miami architects. He gave the school an impressive entrance off Flagler Street "of three arched portals befitting a Gothic cathedral," according to the American Institute of Architects' Miami architecture guide. [7] The building is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

1968 was a significant year for Miami Senior High School. Structural changes were made to accommodate a newly installed air conditioning system that closed off the building's high ceilings. The original windows on the building were sealed with bricks before the completion of the work, and students suffered in hot classrooms for a large portion of the year. This was also the year of the major Florida statewide teachers' strike, which caused students’ classes to be in chaos due to having many newly hired substitute teachers, while their regular teachers walked picket lines for weeks.

Demographics

Located in the Little Havana neighborhood, the school was founded in 1903. Since the late 1960s, the high school has traditionally had a Cuban-American majority. Today, a growing number of students are of Central American descent, reflecting demographic changes in Little Havana since the 1990s.

As of 2013, Miami Senior High School is 94% Hispanic (primarily Cuban, Honduran, Guatemalan, and Salvadorean), 3% White (non-Hispanic), and 3% Black. [8]

By the 1950s, a large Jewish minority had developed at Miami Senior High School, and Jews made up the majority of the students in some advanced-level classes. During that decade some Jewish students were in the attendance zone for Coral Gables Senior High School but were instead sent to Miami High; this was especially the case with girls, as many high-status girls' clubs at Coral Gables High did not admit Jews. A patio called "Little Jerusalem" or "LJ" (initially "Little Israel" in the 1950s) was where Jewish students socialized. [9]

In 1984, the student newspaper declared Spanglish the official language of Miami Senior High School. Then, like today, most students at the school spoke fluent Spanish and English. 69% of the school's students graduate, and it has an overall dropout rate of 4%. [8]

Historic architectural restoration

Miami High Media Center Miami High Media Center Library.jpg
Miami High Media Center
U.S. Secretary of Education John King Jr. speaks at Miami High School, 2016 Miami High School, Miami, Florida.jpg
U.S. Secretary of Education John King Jr. speaks at Miami High School, 2016

Beginning in 2010, Miami Senior High School underwent a four-year historic restoration, renovation, and remodeling project at a cost of approximately $55 million. Project architect Thorn Grafton of Zyscovich Architects, who is the grandson of Miami Beach pioneering architect Russell Pancoast, was one of the people who undertook the renovation project. Completed in April 2014, the project did away with the dropped ceilings that had accommodated an old air conditioning system and restored the original high ceilings and decorative cast-stone vent screens in the halls. It also reopened the original second-story arcade, removed an office expansion that had blocked part of the courtyard, and restored the original 14-foot arched windows and steel-trussed cathedral ceiling in the old library (now a media center). [7]

Notable alumni

In pop culture

Movies including The Substitute and Porky's were filmed at MHS, as well as the music videos for Gloria Estefan and NSYNC's "Music of My Heart" and Drake's "God's Plan". [14]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Udonis Haslem</span> American basketball player (born 1980)

Udonis Johneal Haslem is a former American professional basketball player who is currently the Vice President of Basketball Development for the Miami Heat, where he spent his entire 20-year career in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Haslem played college basketball for the Florida Gators, where he was a key member of four NCAA tournament teams. Haslem began his professional career in France with Chalon-sur-Saône and then signed with his hometown Miami Heat in 2003, where he became the longest-tenured player in franchise history. Haslem also won three NBA championships with the Heat.

Miami Killian Senior High School is a secondary school located at 10655 SW 97th Ave, Miami, FL 33176 in the Kendall area of unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida. The school is part of the Miami-Dade County Public Schools System.

Christopher Columbus High School is a private, Roman Catholic, college-preparatory high school, conducted by the Marist Brothers in the Westchester census-designated place of Miami Dade County, Florida. It was established in 1958 and was taken over by the Marist Brothers in 1959. It has over 100 teachers, administrators, faculty, staff, and an enrollment of 1,700 students. It was selected, for the fourth time in a row, as one of the "Top 50 Catholic High Schools" in the United States by the Catholic High School Honor Roll in 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miami Palmetto Senior High School</span> Public secondary school in Pinecrest, Florida, , United States

Miami Palmetto Senior High School is a public high school located at 7431 S.W. 120th Street in Pinecrest, Florida. The school is on 23 acres (9.3 ha) in southwest Miami-Dade County, and is part of the Miami-Dade County Public Schools district. Miami Norland Senior High is Miami Palmetto's sister school by original blueprints. The school has been named a Blue Ribbon School of Excellence. Its principal is Victoria Dobbs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liberty City (Miami)</span> Neighbourhood in Miami, Florida, US

Liberty City is a neighborhood in Miami, Florida, United States. The area is roughly bound by NW 79th Street to the north, NW 27th Avenue to the west, the Airport Expressway to the South, and Interstate 95 to the east. The neighborhood is home to one of the largest concentrations of African Americans in South Florida, as of the 2000 census. Although it was often known as "Model City" both historically and by the City of Miami government, residents more commonly call it Liberty City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hialeah Senior High School</span> Public high school in Florida

Hialeah Senior High School is a public high school located at 251 E 47th Street in Hialeah, Florida, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hialeah-Miami Lakes Senior High School</span> Public high school operated by Miami-Dade County Public Schools.

Hialeah-Miami Lakes Senior High School is a public high school operated by Miami-Dade County Public Schools, located at 7977 West Twelfth Avenue in Hialeah, Florida, United States, on the boundary with the city of Miami Lakes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cardinal Hayes High School</span> School in Bronx, New York, United States

Cardinal Hayes High School is an American Catholic high school for boys in the Concourse Village neighborhood of the Bronx, New York City, New York. The school serves the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York. It is a member of the Catholic High School Athletic Association. The building was constructed in the Art Deco style. It is named after Cardinal Patrick Joseph Hayes, a previous archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glynn Academy</span> Public school in Brunswick, Georgia, United States

Glynn Academy (GA) is an American public high school in Brunswick, Georgia, United States, enrolling 1,900 students in grades 9–12. Along with Brunswick High School, it is one of two high schools in the Glynn County School System. Glynn Academy offers technical, academic, and Advanced Placement programs and is accredited by the Georgia Department of Education and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. The school has consistently been ranked among the top public high schools in the United States by Newsweek.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southwest Miami Senior High School</span> Public secondary school in Olympia Heights, Florida, Florida, United States

Southwest Miami Senior High School, is a co-educational secondary school in Olympia Heights, a census-designated place in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. Southwest is currently an 'A' school and of the more than 30 public schools that are neither all magnet schools nor charter schools, Southwest is ranked second best in Miami-Dade county by U.S. News & World Report.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apopka High School</span> Public school

Apopka High School is in Apopka in northwest Orange County, Florida, United States. The school has been named a Blue Ribbon School of Excellence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">El Jardin</span> United States historic place

El Jardin is a house located at 3747 Main Highway in Miami, Florida. It is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. El Jardin is now home to Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart in Miami, Florida. It was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on August 30, 1974.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clearwater High School</span> Public secondary school in Clearwater, Florida, United States

Clearwater High School (CHS) is a four-year public high school located in Clearwater, Florida, United States. It is part of the Pinellas County School System. The school mascot is a tornado, therefore students and faculty are known as the Tornadoes. Their colors are crimson and gray, which is also the name of their fight song.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miami Carol City Senior High School</span> Public school in Miami Gardens, Florida , United States

Miami Carol City Senior High School (MCCSH) is a public high school located at 3301 Miami Gardens Drive in Miami Gardens, Florida, United States. It was established in 1963. The school is part of the Miami-Dade County Public Schools system. The school serves students from the area of Miami Gardens, a community south of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, north of downtown Miami, Florida and home to the Miami Dolphins, in what is currently known as Hard Rock Stadium.

Miami Jackson Senior High School, also known as Andrew Jackson High School or Jackson High School, is a high school located at 1751 NW 36th Street in the Allapattah neighborhood of Miami, Florida, United States. Its athletic team name is the Generals.

Miami Norland Senior High School is a public high school in the Norland neighborhood of Miami Gardens, Florida. It opened in 1958 and was segregated, serving only white students until 1969. Its student body is approximately 95 percent African American. Its teams have won state championships.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miami Edison Senior High School</span> High school in Little Haiti, Miami, Florida, United States

Miami Edison High School is a secondary school located at 6161 NW 5 Ct. in the Little Haiti neighborhood of Miami, Florida, United States. It is part of the Miami-Dade County Public Schools system. Its provost is Leon Maycock.

Samuel W. Wolfson High School is a magnet high school located in the Duval County Public School district. As an academic magnet and college preparatory school, Wolfson specializes in Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses. In addition to its academic focus, Samuel Wolfson School for Advanced Studies has a athletics program, a program for visual and performing arts, and a JROTC program. Its name is derived from Samuel W. Wolfson, a local businessman whose family was prominent in Jacksonville, Wolfson houses the Finance, Law, and Business magnet program. A VyStar Credit Union branch is located inside the school, and is available for students and faculty to use. Wolfson is a member of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. The school's main rival is the Englewood Rams.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kiehnel and Elliott</span> American architect

The architectural firm of Kiehnel and Elliot was established in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1906. The firm did substantial work in Florida, and moved to Miami in 1922. From 1926, it was known as Kiehnel, Elliot and Chalfant.

References

  1. 1 2 http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/10/19/2470343_p2/miami-high-school-a-moorish-palace.html [ dead link ]
  2. 1 2 3 "MIAMI SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL". National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved November 7, 2020.
  3. ↑ "Home - School Profile - Miami Senior High School" . Retrieved April 28, 2023.
  4. ↑ "Home - Principal's Message - Miami Senior High School" . Retrieved April 28, 2023.
  5. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  6. 1 2 City of Miami Historic Preservation Officer (March 16, 2004). "Report on the Potential Designation of the First Miami High School as a Historic Site" (PDF). City of Miami Planning Department. City of Miami. Retrieved April 14, 2014.
  7. 1 2 Viglucci, Andres (April 11, 2014). "Miami High restored as resplendent castle of learning". Miami Herald . Retrieved April 11, 2014.
  8. 1 2 "Explore Miami Senior High School in Miami, FL". GreatSchools.org.
  9. ↑ Moore, Deborah Dash. To the Golden Cities: Pursuing the American Jewish Dream in Miami and L.A. . Harvard University Press, 1994. ISBN   0674893050, 9780674893054. p. 87.
  10. ↑ Boxoffice Magazine, 'Former Miamian Chris George has been at the Four Ambassadors Hotel in Miami to Plug his latest Film,' page SE7, 12 March 1973
  11. ↑ Bushouse, Kathy (March 31, 2001). "'The People's Candidate'". Sun Sentinel . Retrieved July 14, 2013.
  12. ↑ "Incredible bulk". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved February 28, 2024.
  13. ↑ Rogers, Phil (June 19, 1997). "For the Sox, it's Miami twice". Chicago Tribune . p. 10. Retrieved May 12, 2023.
  14. ↑ "Drake Filmed the "God's Plan" Video at a Miami High School". July 31, 2018.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.