Girls' High School is a defunct secondary school that was located at various times in the

Downtown Boston Downtown Boston is the central business district of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Boston was founded in 1630. The largest of the city's commercial districts, Downtown is the location of many corporate or regional headquarters; city, c ...

, South End and Roxbury sections of

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

. The first public high school for young women in the United States, 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. In 1854, the school's name was changed to the ''Girls' High and Normal School''. 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 ''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...

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

Notable alumnae

* Jennie Loitman Barron, attorney and judge (Class of 1907) * Miriam Benjamin, schoolteacher and inventor (Class of 1881) * Marcella Boveri, biologist and first woman to graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology * Harriet E. Caryl, teacher at Girls High School for 48 years (Class of 1855) * Melnea Cass, civil rights activist * Wilhelmina Marguerita Crosson, educator and school administrator * Mildred Davenport, dancer and dance instructor * Margaret Foley, suffragist * Jessie G. Garnett, first African-American woman dentist in Boston * Sophie Chantal Hart, professor of English at

Wellesley College Wellesley College is a Private university, private Women's colleges in the United States, historically women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henr ...

(Class of 1887) * Anita Florence Hemmings, librarian, first African American woman to graduate from

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* Pauline Hopkins, novelist, journalist, playwright, historian, and editor * Lillian A. Lewis, first African-American woman journalist in Boston (Class of 1886) * Vera Mikol, journalist and researcher (Class of 1916) * Ruth Roman, actress of film, stage, and television * Helen C. White, professor of English at

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

(Class of 1913) * Olive B. White, writer, college professor and Dean of Women at

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(Class of 1915)

Heads of school

''incomplete list'' * Loring Lothrop, 1852–1856 * William H. Seavey, 1856–1868 * Ephraim Hunt, 1868–1872 * Samuel Eliot, 1872–1876 * Homer B. Sprague, 1876–1885 * John Tetlow, 1885–1907 * Albert Perry Walker, 1907–1911 * Myron W. Richardson, 1911–1925 * John E. Denham, 1925 * Raymond J. Gemmel, 1966 * Charles F. Ray, 1981

Locations

* Mason Street, Downtown Boston * 85 West Newton Street, South End * 36 Winthrop Street, Roxbury

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Girls' High School High schools in Boston Educational institutions established in 1852 Educational institutions disestablished in 1974 Public high schools in Massachusetts 1852 establishments in Massachusetts 1974 disestablishments in Massachusetts South End, Boston Roxbury, Boston Defunct schools in Massachusetts Defunct girls' schools in the United States Women in Boston Girls' schools in Massachusetts