For some reason I can’t fathom, I’ve always been fascinated by the early history of public high schools in the U.S., and I love looking at those schools’ web sites when they include early photos, documentation such as newspaper articles and student handbooks, and the like.
As it happens, most older high schools have virtually nothing of that sort in their web sites, other than a brief nod about how they were “founded in 18-- and through the years have embodied the best…”. It must be some silly notion of wanting to be future-focused, or some such.
At any rate, if you know of any web sites of pre-1900 public high schools, that include historical information, I would appreciate it if you’d post it here, or email me.
I already know about Los Angeles High School’s and Central High’s (Philadelphia) sites. L.A.'s is surprisingly good considering that its site changed many times through its history, and its current building is a hideous prisonlike post-earthquake rebuild which is so bad that they still use a picture of the beautiful 1916 version on their logo.
Hey javaman, I don’t have any more info on Central’s website but if you’re that interested I can dig my circa-1984 copy of the CHS Handbook out of my parents’ basement and send you some photocopies.
Well, I attended the oldest high school in the U.S., St. Michael’s, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. How old is St. Mike’s? So old that Billy the Kid talks about it in the movie Young Guns. Well, to be fair, back then it was St. Michael’s Academy or College or some such. Anyway, it’s really old.
