Hyde Park High School (Massachusetts)

Last updated
Hyde Park High School
Hyde Park High School - 0403002092a - City of Boston Archives.jpg
External view of the high school, circa 1928
Location
Hyde Park High School (Massachusetts)
655 Metropolitan Avenue
Hyde Park, Massachusetts 02136

United States
Coordinates 42°15′46″N71°07′04″W / 42.2627°N 71.1178°W / 42.2627; -71.1178
Information
Type Public high school
Established1869
Closed2005
Faculty73 (1965) [1]
Enrollment1,700 (1967) [2]
Color(s)
  Blue
  White
Team nameBlue Stars
YearbookThe Blue Book

Hyde Park High School was a four-year public high school that served students in ninth through twelfth grades in the Boston neighborhood of Hyde Park, Massachusetts, United States. The school held its first classes in 1869, one year after the founding of the town of Hyde Park. The school was located at 655 Metropolitan Avenue from 1928 until its closure in 2005.

Contents

History

Founding and development

Hyde Park High School was established in 1869, in what was then the independent town of Hyde Park, Massachusetts. [3] In its early years, the school offered two courses of study for pupils, a four year classical preparatory education, and a two year business training course. [4] Hyde Park was annexed by the City of Boston in 1912, and the administration of Hyde Park High School was assumed by Boston Public Schools (BPS). Male and female pupils were taught separately until senior year, at which time the studies became co-educational. [5] Into the 1960s, the school was a popular choice for parents and students, even for those outside of the neighborhood, evidenced by the population increase at the school from 1,236 pupils enrolled in 1960 to 1,700 students in 1967. The headmaster reported a waiting list of 250 at that time. [2]

Challenging times

Racial tensions began to haunt the school, starting in 1970. The African–American population at the school in the early 1970s stood at 15%. On January 19, 1970, a dispute between groups of black and white youths at a bus stop resulted in a knifing incident, with two white pupils being slashed, and a black student arrested for assault. Faculty arriving on January 21 to school found that anti–black graffiti had been spray–painted on the front steps of the building. Half of the 1700 student population was absent following the incident. [6]

Starting in the fall of 1974, court ordered desegregation was implemented, more than doubling the population of black students. On September 19, racial violence cut classes short. Rocks were thrown at departing school buses. On October 15, a 15 year old white student was stabbed during a melee in the school’s main corridor, and at least six other students and one teacher went to the hospital. Students recall being locked in their classrooms. An 18 year old black youth from Dorchester was ultimately arrested in the stabbing. [7]

Partial Boston Police Department plan of Hyde Park High School, created to assist assigned officers. Note the "isolated, dark" description of locker room areas Boston Police Planning and Research Division - Hyde Park High School, July 1975 - Robert J. Di Grazia, Police Commissioner - NARA - 86752405 (page 9).jpg
Partial Boston Police Department plan of Hyde Park High School, created to assist assigned officers. Note the "isolated, dark" description of locker room areas

On account of the many occurrences of violence in the school and immediate area, the Boston Police Department’s Tactical Police Force were deployed to the neighborhood. Governor Francis Sargent summoned 450 members of the National Guard, over the objection of Mayor Kevin White. Sargent also made a request to President Gerald Ford to send federal troops to Boston to quell racial violence in the city, which was denied. BPS installed a magnetometer, borrowed from United Airlines, to scan all students coming into school.

Later years

Court ordered busing and the ensuing racial strife left a lasting impact on the school. Once described as a "country club" by its headmaster, [7] by the 1980s and continuing into the 90s, the school was fraught with claims of racism, [8] violence among students, [9] a consistent underperformer threatened with loss of accreditation, [10] and a frequent target for closure. [11]

Another Course to College was temporarily relocated and held classes in the basement of Hyde Park High School from 1989 until 1993.

Closure and structure change

Hyde Park High School ceased to exist following the 2004–05 school year. BPS Superintendent Thomas Payzant implemented a plan to create smaller schools within the Hyde Park High School and other neighborhood schools with the hope to improve education and attendance, prevent dropping out, and to give top students more rigorous assignments. The facility was renamed the Hyde Park Education Complex, and smaller autonomous schools and academic programs were created, each with a focused theme. The following are a list of schools and programs housed in the building since Hyde Park High School's closing.

Beginning in the 2005–2006 school year, the following schools opened in the facility:

At the end of the 2010–2011 school year, The Engineering School and the Social Justice Academy were closed. The Community Academy of Science & Health was relocated to Dorchester, leaving the building empty for the first time in 82 years.

Starting in the 2012–2013 school year, the following schools were moved into the building:

Starting in the 2020-2021 school year, The Building will be home to one school, New Mission High School. This is the first time the Building occupied one school since 2005.

In media

In his television series Free to Choose , economist Milton Friedman used the school as an example of the failure of the public school system; highlighting the schools use of metal detectors, uniformed police and the state of the facilities.

Locations

The school was housed in several locations from its opening until 1902 when the selectmen dedicated a four-floor school building located at Everett Street and Harvard Avenue. Hyde Park High remained at the location until it was decided that a new, larger building was needed to house the school's growing population. Officials decided on a triangular site between Metropolitan Avenue and Harvard Avenue, the two story, $1,286,000 building being completed in 1928. The prior 1902 building then became the William Barton Rogers Middle School (since closed).

The current Hyde Park Educational Complex is accessible by taking the MBTA bus 32 from nearby Forest Hills.

Notable alumni

Headmasters

A total of nineteen educators served as headmaster of the school:

See also

Boston Public Schools
Hyde Park, Boston

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roxbury, Boston</span> Neighborhood of Boston in Massachusetts, United States

Roxbury is a neighborhood within the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louise Day Hicks</span> American politician and lawyer (1916–2003)

Anna Louise Day Hicks was an American politician and lawyer from Boston, Massachusetts, best known for her staunch opposition to desegregation in Boston public schools, and especially to court-ordered busing, in the 1960s and 1970s. A longtime member of Boston's school board and city council, she served one term in the United States House of Representatives, succeeding John William McCormack.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jamaica Plain</span> Neighborhood in Boston

Jamaica Plain is a neighborhood of 4.4 square miles (11 km2) in Boston, Massachusetts. Settled by Puritans seeking farmland to the south, it was originally part of Roxbury, Massachusetts. The community seceded from Roxbury during the formation of West Roxbury in 1851 and became part of Boston when West Roxbury was annexed in 1874. In the 19th century, Jamaica Plain became one of the first streetcar suburbs in America and home to a significant portion of Boston's Emerald Necklace of parks, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dorchester, Boston</span> Neighborhood of Boston in Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States

Dorchester is a Boston neighborhood comprising more than 6 square miles (16 km2) in the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Originally, Dorchester was a separate town, founded by Puritans who emigrated in 1630 from Dorchester, Dorset, England, to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. This dissolved municipality, Boston's largest neighborhood by far, is often divided by city planners in order to create two planning areas roughly equivalent in size and population to other Boston neighborhoods.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fenway–Kenmore</span> Neighborhood in Boston in Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States

Fenway–Kenmore is an officially recognized neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. While it is considered one neighborhood for administrative purposes, it is composed of numerous distinct sections that, in casual conversation, are almost always referred to as "Fenway", "the Fenway", "Kenmore Square", or "Kenmore". Furthermore, the Fenway neighborhood is divided into two sub-neighborhoods commonly referred to as East Fenway/Symphony and West Fenway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allston</span> Neighborhood of Boston in Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States

Allston is an officially recognized neighborhood within the City of Boston, Massachusetts. It was named after the American painter and poet Washington Allston. It comprises the land covered by the zip code 02134. For the most part, Allston is administered collectively with the adjacent neighborhood of Brighton. The two are often referred to together as Allston–Brighton. Boston Police Department District D-14 covers the Allston-Brighton area and a Boston Fire Department Allston station is located in Union Square which houses Engine 41 and Ladder 14. Engine 41 is nicknamed "The Bull" to commemorate the historic stockyards of Allston.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mattapan</span> Neighborhood of Boston in Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States

Mattapan is a neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts. Historically and for legal processes a section of Dorchester, Mattapan became a part of Boston when Dorchester was annexed in 1870. Mattapan is the original Native American name for the Dorchester area, possibly meaning "a place to sit." At the 2010 census, it had a population of 36,480, with the majority of its population immigrants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hyde Park, Boston</span> Neighborhood of Boston in Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States

Hyde Park is the southernmost neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Situated 7.9 miles south of downtown Boston, it is home to a diverse range of people, housing types and social groups. It is an urban location with suburban characteristics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kevin White (politician)</span> American politician

Kevin Hagan White was an American politician best known for serving as the mayor of Boston for four terms from 1968 to 1984. He was first elected to the office at the age of 38. He presided as mayor during racially turbulent years in the late 1960s and 1970s, and the start of desegregation of schools via court-ordered busing of school children in Boston. White won the mayoral office in the 1967 general election in a hard-fought campaign opposing the anti-busing and anti-desegregation Boston School Committee member Louise Day Hicks. Earlier he had been elected Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth in 1960 at the age of 31, and he resigned from that office after his election as Mayor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boston Public Schools</span> Public school system of Boston

Boston Public Schools (BPS) is a school district serving the city of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is the largest public school district in the state of Massachusetts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boston Latin Academy</span> Public coeducational exam school in Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Boston Latin Academy (BLA) is a public exam school founded in 1878 in Boston, Massachusetts providing students in grades 7th through 12th a classical preparatory education.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Forest Hills, Boston</span> United States historic place

Forest Hills is a part of the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Forest Hills is characterized by hilly terrain and wooded areas within and adjacent to its borders. In general, the area slopes upward from Hyde Park Ave and downward from Walk Hill Street.

The Chelsea High School is located in Chelsea, Massachusetts, United States and is the only public high school in Chelsea. It is a part of Chelsea Public Schools. Established in 1845, Chelsea High moved into its current school building in 1996. Chelsea High School is located at 299 Everett Avenue, Chelsea, Massachusetts 02150.

The desegregation of Boston public schools (1974–1988) was a period in which the Boston Public Schools were under court control to desegregate through a system of busing students. The call for desegregation and the first years of its implementation led to a series of racial protests and riots that brought national attention, particularly from 1974 to 1976. In response to the Massachusetts legislature's enactment of the 1965 Racial Imbalance Act, which ordered the state's public schools to desegregate, W. Arthur Garrity Jr. of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts laid out a plan for compulsory busing of students between predominantly white and black areas of the city. The hard control of the desegregation plan lasted for over a decade. It influenced Boston politics and contributed to demographic shifts of Boston's school-age population, leading to a decline of public-school enrollment and white flight to the suburbs. Full control of the desegregation plan was transferred to the Boston School Committee in 1988; in 2013 the busing system was replaced by one with dramatically reduced busing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roxbury Memorial High School</span> Public high school in the United States

Roxbury Memorial High School is a defunct four-year public high school serving students in ninth through twelfth grades. Originally founded as Roxbury High School, the school was situated at 26 Townsend Street, in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States from 1926 until its closure in 1960.

South Boston High School was a public high school located in South Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was part of Boston Public Schools. The school closed in 2003, and its former facility is currently occupied by Excel High School.

From 1974 to 1976, the court-ordered busing of students to achieve school desegregation led to sporadic outbreaks of violence in Boston's schools and in the city's largely segregated neighborhoods. Although Boston was by no means the only American city to undertake a plan of school desegregation, the forced busing of students from some of the city's most impoverished and racially segregated neighborhoods led to an unprecedented level of violence and turmoil in the city's streets and classrooms and made national headlines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Another Course to College</span> Pilot school in the United States

Another Course to College (ACC) is a Public Pilot School located in Hyde Park, Boston, Massachusetts, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dorchester High School for Girls</span> Defunct school in Massachusetts, United States

Dorchester High School for Girls is a defunct four-year public high school that served students in ninth through twelfth grades, that was located in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States from 1925 to 1953.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Darryl Williams (advocate)</span>

Darryl K. Williams of Roxbury, Boston, Massachusetts and Milton, Massachusetts was an advocate for social justice, compassion and forgiveness as well as a local advocate for accessibility for persons with disabilities. As a 15-year-old African-American living in Roxbury, Boston, Massachusetts, Williams became the victim of a school shooting on September 28, 1979, in Charlestown, Boston, Massachusetts while playing at a high school football game. Williams survived the shooting but was paralyzed from the neck down for the rest of his life. Protests, rallies and school walkouts ensued in response, and racial tensions in the city of Boston escalated in the aftermath.

References

  1. ↑ "Manual of the Public Schools of the City of Boston" . Retrieved January 6, 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 "Hyde Park High Population, Crowded", Boston Globe, February 19, 1967
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Hyde Park Historical Society (1892). The Hyde Park Historical Record, Volumes 1-4. Hyde Park, Mass.
  4. ↑ Hyde Park, Mass. (1888). Memorial Sketch of Hyde Park, Mass. ).
  5. 1 2 3 "Hyde Park High Cadets Have Won First Place Six Consecutive Years", Boston Globe, April 17, 1934
  6. ↑ "Tension eases at Hyde Park; 50% absent", Boston Globe, January 21, 1970
  7. 1 2 Scott Helman (November 30, 2014). "For Hyde Park student, a life rerouted by school busing". Boston Globe.
  8. ↑ "School dispute sparks board shouting match", Boston Globe, October 19, 1988
  9. ↑ "Youth stabbed at school; classmate, 18, is charged", Boston Globe, February 10, 1983
  10. ↑ "Hyde Park High works to make progress", Boston Globe, May 15, 1995
  11. ↑ "Boston schools panel proposes 5 closings to save $27m", Boston Globe, June 27, 1989
  12. ↑ Harrison, William (1946). "Phylon Profile IX: William Monroe Trotter–Fighter". Phylon. 7 (3): 239. doi:10.2307/272144. JSTOR   272144.
  13. ↑ "Hyde Park High School Class of 1962". hydeparkhighschoolalumni.com.
  14. ↑ Nevins, Paul L. (2010). The Politics of Selfishness: How John Locke's Legacy is Paralyzing America. ABC-CLIO. ISBN   978-0-313-39351-8.
  15. ↑ "Haley Headmaster of Hyde Park High", Boston Globe, June 5, 1934
  16. ↑ "School Committee Reelects Joseph C. White Chairman", Boston Globe, January 7, 1941
  17. ↑ "A.F. Reed Named Headmaster of Charlestown High School", Boston Globe, June 27, 1941
  18. ↑ "Kozodoy Headmaster At East Boston", Boston Globe, July 1, 1959
  19. 1 2 "The Changing Guard at Hyde Park High", Boston Globe, February 13, 1976
  20. ↑ "Wilson airs shakeup of school administration", Boston Globe, August 20, 1989
  21. ↑ "Six new principals named by Payzant", Boston Globe, August 1, 1996
  22. ↑ "Payzant names 3 to lead overhauled high schools", Boston Globe, June 22, 2000
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.