Horace Howard Furness High School is a secondary (9th-12th) school in

South Philadelphia South Philadelphia, nicknamed South Philly, is the section of Philadelphia bounded by South Street to the north, the Delaware River to the east and south and the Schuylkill River to the west.School District of Philadelphia The School District of Philadelphia (SDP) is the school district that includes all school district-operated public schools in Philadelphia. Established in 1818, it is the 8th largest school district in the nation, by enrollment, serving over 200 ...

. Portions of South Philadelphia (including Bella Vista,

Passyunk Square Passyunk Square is a neighborhood in South Philadelphia bounded by Broad Street to the west, 6th Street to the east, Tasker Street to the south and Washington Avenue to the north. Passyunk Square is bordered by the Bella Vista, Hawthorne, Centra ...

Pennsport Pennsport is a neighborhood in the South Philadelphia section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Pennsport is home to a large working-class Irish American population, many of them descendants of immigrants from the mid to late 19th c ...

Queen Village Queen Village is a residential neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that lies along the eastern edge of the city in South Philadelphia. It shares boundaries with Society Hill to the north, Bella Vista to the west and Pennsport to the south. ...

, and Whitman) are zoned to Furness.Horace Furness High School Geographic BoundariesArchive
.

School District of Philadelphia The School District of Philadelphia (SDP) is the school district that includes all school district-operated public schools in Philadelphia. Established in 1818, it is the 8th largest school district in the nation, by enrollment, serving over 200 ...

. Retrieved on October 4, 2011. A section of Center City, including

Society Hill Society Hill is a historic neighborhood in Center City Philadelphia, with a population of 6,215 . Settled in the early 1680s, Society Hill is one of the oldest residential neighborhoods in Philadelphia.The Center City District dates the Free Soc ...

and Old City, was formerly zoned to Furness for high school.

History

It was originally built as an elementary school, with construction starting in 1913 and ending in 1914; it later became Horace Furness Junior High School. It was named for Shakespearean scholar

Horace Howard Furness Horace Howard Furness (November 2, 1833 – August 13, 1912) was an American Shakespearean scholar of the 19th century. Life and career Horace Furness was the son of the Unitarian minister and abolitionist William Henry Furness (1802–1896), ...

(1833-1912). It was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

as Horace Furness Junior High School in 1986. It was later converted into a senior high school, and its first high school graduation was held in 1991. In 2012 Daniel Peou, a

Cambodian American Cambodian Americans,; also Khmer Americans, are Americans of Cambodian or Khmer ancestry. In addition, Cambodian Americans are also Americans with ancestry of other ethnic groups of Cambodia, such as the Chams and Chinese Cambodians. According ...

man who was once a refugee and had lived in Philadelphia, became the principal of Furness.

Architecture

The school building was designed by

Henry deCourcy Richards Henry deCourcy Richards, also spelled Henry deCoursey Richards, was an American architect who worked in Philadelphia for the public school system. He designed many public school buildings that have since been listed on the National Register of ...

and built by Cramp & Co. It is a four-story, rectangular, reinforced concrete building clad in brick and

terra cotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...

in the Late Gothic Revival-style. It features an oversized arched entryway, blind panels, terra cotta quoining, and a brick

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). Whe ...

. ''Note:'' This includes

Student body

the school had 694 students. These students used over 25 different languages. In 2000 the school had about 1,200 students. In the 2009-2010 school year the school had 673 students, with 40% being African-American and 38% being Asian. Benjamin Herold of the ''

Philadelphia Public School Notebook Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

'' stated that Furness was largely free of racial tensions.

Academic performance

In regards to Pennsylvania's state achievement tests, of 11th graders at Furness, the percentages of students meeting the standard or higher were 43% in reading and 58% in mathematics. In terms of Philadelphia's comprehensive schools these percentages were higher than the average.

Transportation

SEPTA The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) is a regional public transportation authority that operates bus, rapid transit, commuter rail, light rail, and electric trolleybus services for nearly 4 million people in five coun ...

routes 29, 57 and 79 serve Furness.A Directory of High Schools for 2009 Admissions

Archive
. ''

''. p. 15 (PDF p/ 17/40). Accessed November 6, 2008.

School uniforms

Furness requires its students to wear

school uniform A school uniform is a uniform worn by students primarily for a school or otherwise an educational institution.They are common in primary and secondary schools in various countries. An example of a uniform would be requiring button-down shir ...

s. Students may wear a gray shirt that must have a collar on it with black pants.

Feeder patterns

K-8 schools feeding into Furness include:High School Directory Fall 2017 Admissions

Archive
.

. p. 32/70. Retrieved on November 16, 2016. * Andrew Jackson School *

Eliza Butler Kirkbride School Eliza Butler Kirkbride School is a K–8 school located in the Passyunk Square neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is a part of the School District of Philadelphia. The historic school building was designed by Irwin T. Catharine and ...

* William M. Meredith School * George W. Nebinger School *

George Sharswood School George W. Sharswood School is a K-8 school located in the Whitman neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is a part of the School District of Philadelphia. History The school building was designed by Henry deCourcy Richards and built in 1 ...

* John H. Taggart School *

Vare-Washington School Vare-Washington School, is a K-8 school in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is a part of the School District of Philadelphia. It occupies the former George Washington School building in the Dickinson Narrows neighborhood, in proximity to Sout ...

(formerly Abigail Vare School and George Washington School) Previously George A. McCall School in

fed Furness High.School Finder
"

. Retrieved on November 30, 2015.

References

External links

* * - 2017 * - 2001-2007 * - 1997-2002 {{DEFAULTSORT:Furness, Horace, Junior High School School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Philadelphia Gothic Revival architecture in Pennsylvania School buildings completed in 1914 High schools in Philadelphia School District of Philadelphia Public high schools in Pennsylvania 1914 establishments in Pennsylvania South Philadelphia