Amesbury High School is a

coeducational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to t ...

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

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 ...

in the city of

Amesbury, Massachusetts Amesbury is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, located on the left bank of the Merrimack River near its mouth, upstream from Salisbury and across the river from Newburyport and West Newbury. The population was 17,366 at the 2020 ...

, serving as the primary high school for students from Amesbury and,

South Hampton, New Hampshire South Hampton is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 894 at the 2020 census. South Hampton is home to Cowden State Forest and Powwow River State Forest. History South Hampton was one of the first town ...

, along with also drawing some students from other parts of the lower

Merrimack Valley The Merrimack Valley is a bi-state region along the Merrimack River in the U.S. states of New Hampshire and Massachusetts. The Merrimack is one of the larger waterways in New England and has helped to define the livelihood and culture of those l ...

region. It is in the Amesbury Public Schools district, and serves

grade Grade most commonly refers to: * Grade (education), a measurement of a student's performance * Grade, the number of the year a student has reached in a given educational stage * Grade (slope), the steepness of a slope Grade or grading may also ref ...

s 9 through 12. The school mascot is the Red Hawks, the colors are red and white. The yearbook is called the ''Powwow''. There are around 620 students, and almost 60 members of faculty and other staff.

History

Amesbury High School was originally housed in what is now called the Ordway building on School Street. A wooden school building built in 1882 served as its first permanent home. The growing school was allowed to expand in a new brick building built in 1917 and was designed by the

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

firm Prescott & Sidebottom. That building served as a high school until a fire destroyed it on April 7, 1964. At the time, plans were underway to build a replacement for the school, which had exceeded its 500-student capacity by 100. After lengthy discussion, a new school was to be built on Highland Street, designed by Walter Scott Brodie of

Kilham, Hopkins, Greeley & Brodie Kilham & Hopkins was an architectural firm in Boston, Massachusetts formed in 1899 or 1900 by its founding members, Walter Harrington Kilham (August 30, 1868 – September 11, 1948) and James Cleveland Hopkins (December 25, 1873 – 1938). The ...

of Boston. This school would have a capacity of 900 students. On September 28, 1969, the new school was dedicated. From 1964 until the 1969 opening of the new building, classes were held in nearby Haverhill, in that city's former high school building (Haverhill High School itself having recently moved to a newly-constructed building).

Athletics

Amesbury High School competes in the

Cape Ann League The Cape Ann League (CAL) is a high school athletic conference in District A of the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association. The league is based mainly on or around Cape Ann, a small cape on the North Shore of Massachusetts Member s ...

. Their teams wear red and white and their athletic director is Glen Gearin. The annual Thanksgiving game between Amesbury High School and

Newburyport High School Newburyport High School (NHS) is a public high school serving students in ninth through twelfth grades in Newburyport, Massachusetts, United States and is part of the Newburyport Public School System. It was established in 1831 and is one of ...

is one of the oldest high school football rivalries in the country, dating back to 1891.

Graduates

The USA Network show ''Burn Notice'' stars

Jeffrey Donovan Jeffrey Donovan (born May 11, 1968) is an American actor. He played Michael Westen in the television series ''Burn Notice'', and appeared in films such as '' Hitch'', '' Believe in Me'', ''Changeling'', and ''Come Early Morning''. He played Robe ...

, a graduate from Amesbury High School. In 2009, Donovan visited Amesbury High and started a scholarship of $10,000 for an aspiring art student who plans to major in a fine arts career program in college. The scholarship will be given out to one student every year until 2018. Another graduate was Major General Frank D Merrill, famous for commanding the 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional), better known as "Merrill's Marauders," in the

China-Burma-India Theater China Burma India Theater (CBI) was the United States military designation during World War II for the China and Southeast Asian or India–Burma (IBT) theaters. Operational command of Allied forces (including U.S. forces) in the CBI was officia ...

WWII World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Author and historian

Osmond Richard Cummings Osmond Richard Cummings (May 17, 1923 – January 15, 2013) was an American author and historian. He published several histories of railroad systems in New England. Life and career Cummings was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, the son of Or ...

graduated in 1940.

References

External links

* web.archive.org/web/20101025091310/http://amesburyma.gov/AmesburyHigh.cfm?subpage=43576 The official website of Amesbury High Schoolbr>
{{Cape Ann League Cape Ann League Amesbury Public Schools Educational institutions established in 1882 Schools in Essex County, Massachusetts Public high schools in Massachusetts 1882 establishments in Massachusetts