The Promise Academy at Roberts Vaux High School (commonly referred to as the Roberts Vaux Promise Academy) is an historic, American

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

building that is located in the North Central neighborhood of

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 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 ...

. Named for American jurist, abolitionist, and philanthropist

Roberts Vaux Roberts Vaux (January 25, 1786 – January 7, 1836) was an American lawyer, jurist, abolitionist, and philanthropist. Early life He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the eldest son of a well-known Religious Society of Friends, Quaker famil ...

(1786-1836), 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 ...

in 1988.

History and architectural features

Irwin T. Catharine Irwin Thornton Catharine (October 22, 1883 – March 3, 1944) was the chief architect of Philadelphia Public school (government funded), public schools from 1920 until his retirement in 1937. Buildings built during Catharine's tenure ranged from ...

and built between 1936 and 1938, this historic structure is a four-story, twenty-three-bay, U-shaped, yellow brick building that was created in a Moderne/

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

style. It features projecting end pavilions,

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 ...

decorative work, and a two-story, stone, Tudor-arched entryway. ''Note:'' This includes It was named for American jurist, abolitionist, and philanthropist

(1786-1836). Jacob C. White, Jr. served as principal from 1864 to 1896 and was the first black school principal in Philadelphia. During his tenure, White reformed the institute and became the leading figure in the field of urban education in Philadelphia. From 1977-1983, Vaux Junior High's

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

team, the Bad Bishops, won an unprecedented seven consecutive national junior high school chess championships. In 1979 the Bad Bishops were invited to a tournament in

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

by the Belgrade Chess Association. They were also invited to the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...

on May 3, prior to their international trip. Vaux produced a number of successful chess players, including NM Howard Daniels, who held the record for the youngest Black chess master for 25 years. The team was initially coached by Michael Sherman, then by mathematics teacher Jeff Chesin. The team disbanded when Chesin left for another school. It was then resurrected during the 1990s by special education teacher Salome Thomas-El who later became the school's principal. During the early 2000s, the chess program disbanded again. While teaching at Vaux High in North Philadelphia during the 2000s, rugby player Larry Conlan saw a need for his students to positively channel their aggression and started an after-school rugby club in 2012. Added to the

in 1988, the school was closed in 2013 as part of Philadelphia's shutdown of twenty-three district-run schools. Displaced students were enrolled in

Strawberry Mansion High School Strawberry Mansion High School is a public high school in the Strawberry Mansion section of Philadelphia. It is part of the School District of Philadelphia. It was previously named Strawberry Mansion Junior / Senior High School, and Strawberry M ...

and Benjamin Franklin High School. The school then reopened for the 2017–2018 academic year under the new leadership of Big Picture Philadelphia.High School Directory Fall 2017 Admissions

Archive
.

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 ...

. p. 66/70. Retrieved on November 16, 2016.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vaux, Roberts, High School School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Philadelphia Moderne architecture in Pennsylvania School buildings completed in 1938 North Central, Philadelphia

History and architectural features

See also

References