Central High School (Philadelphia)

For schools of the same name, see Central High School (disambiguation).

Central High School of Philadelphia
Location
1700 West Olney Avenue, Philadelphia , Pennsylvania United States
Information
Type	Public high school
Established	1836
President	Timothy J. McKenna
Grades	9–12
Color(s)	Crimson   and Gold
Mascot	Central Lancer
Newspaper	The Centralizer
Website	centralhigh.net Demonym: Lancer, Centralian
Central High School
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location	1700 West Olney Ave.., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Area	5 acres (2.0 ha)
Built	1937
Architectural style	Moderne
MPS	Philadelphia Public Schools TR
NRHP reference No.	86003267
Added to NRHP	December 4, 1986

Central High School is a public high school in the Logan section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Central, the second-oldest continuously public high school in the United States (if one does consider schools that were initially private it is the twenty-seventh oldest public high school), was founded in 1836 and is a four-year university preparatory magnet school. About 2,400 students attend grades 9 through 12. It consistently ranks among the top schools in the city and state. Central is regarded as one of the top public schools in the nation due to its high academic standards.

Central High School holds the distinction of being the only high school in the United States that has the authority, granted by an Act of Assembly in 1849, to confer academic degrees upon its graduates. This practice is still in effect, and graduates who meet the requirements are granted the Bachelor of Arts degree. Central also confers high school diplomas upon graduates who do not meet the requirement for a bachelor's degree.

Central, rather than using a general class year to identify its classes (as in "class of 2014"), uses the class graduating number system (as in "273rd graduating class" or "273"). This tradition started shortly after the school's founding, when it was common to have two graduating classes per year – one in January and one in June. In June 1965, semiannual graduations were replaced by annual graduations. As of the 2013–2014 school year, the current senior class is the 273rd graduating class of Central High School.

Due to its authority to grant academic degrees, Central traditionally refers to the principal of the school as the "President" of Central High School. The current president is Timothy J. McKenna.

History

Central High School was founded in 1836 as "the crowning glory" of Philadelphia Pennsylvania's public school system, "the worthy apex to a noble pyramid", and the first "high" school in the state. It used to be an all boys high school.In 1984, it became coeducational.Because city voters only reluctantly had been convinced of the need for a high school, the curriculum was carefully and publicly geared to the needs of taxpayers. Central's founders made an especially concerted effort to avoid educating students in the manner of private academies of the day, where classical languages and literature were of paramount importance.

Central High School of Philadelphia is the second oldest continuously public high school in the United States. The school was chartered by an Act of Assembly and approved on June 13, 1836. A site was purchased on the east side of Juniper Street below Market Street and on September 19, 1837, the cornerstone was laid. The school opened on October 26, 1838 with four professors and sixty-three students.

In November 1839, Alexander Dallas Bache, great grandson of Benjamin Franklin, and Professor of Natural Philosophy and Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania, was elected the first President of Central High School. President Bache resigned in 1842 to return to his professorship at the University of Pennsylvania, and was succeeded by John Seely Hart, who had been a Professor of Languages at Princeton University.

In 1845, two distinguished English members of the Society of Friends, James H. Tuke and Joseph Corosfield, spent several months in America investigating the school system of the United States. They devoted more than one-third of the text of their report to Central High School, which they depicted as a type of institution that had helped America and could help England.

An Act of Assembly, approved on April 9, 1849, provided that:

"The Controllers of the Public Schools of the First School District of Pennsylvania shall have and possess power to confer academic degrees in the arts upon graduates of the Central High School, in the City of Philadelphia, and the same and like power to confer degrees, honorary and otherwise, which is now possessed by the University of Pennsylvania." In accordance with this Act, the Board of Controllers on September 11, 1849, authorized the conferring of appropriate degrees upon graduates of Central High.

On June 24, 1847, the President of the United States, James K. Polk, with Vice-President George M. Dallas and Attorney General Nathan Clifford paid a visit to the school and addressed the students.

In September 1854, the school transferred to a new building, located at the southeast corner of Broad and Green Streets. In 1858, President Hart resigned and was succeeded by Nicholas Harper Maguire. In September 1900, the school moved to its third location in a newer and larger building located at Broad, Green, Fifteenth, and Brandywine Streets. During the formal dedication on November 22, 1902, Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States, addressed the students.

In 1939, Central moved from its location at Broad and Green to its fourth, current, location at Ogontz and Olney Avenues. The building left behind became the Benjamin Franklin High School.

After 139 years of existence as an all-male public high school, Central's all-male policy was challenged by Susan Vorchheimer, who wished to be admitted to Central. On August 7, 1975, U.S. District Court Judge Clarence C. Newcomer ruled that Central must admit academically qualified girls starting in the fall term of 1975. The decision was appealed, and the Third Circuit Court ruled that Central had the right to retain its present status. The case eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court which, on April 19, 1977, upheld the Third Circuit Court's verdict by a 4 to 4 vote with one abstention.

In August 1983, Judge William M. Marutani of the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas, ruled that the single-sex admission policy was unconstitutional. The Board of Education voted not to appeal the legal decision, thereby admitting girls to Central High School. In September 1983, the first six girls, all seniors, were admitted.

In October 1987, and again in September 2011, Central High School was officially named a Secondary school of National Excellence by the United States Department of Education and named a Blue Ribbon School. In March 1992, Redbook magazine named Central as one of the best schools in Pennsylvania. Central was named "Best Secondary School in Pennsylvania" by the magazine each year since they began rating the nation's best schools.

The multi-million dollar art, science, and physical education addition was officially dedicated on February 17, 1994.

The Barnwell library is now one of the most advanced public school libraries in the United States since the $12 million renovation which was completed in 2005.

Philadelphia School of Pedagogy

The Philadelphia School of Pedagogy was a program for Central graduates who wanted to become elementary school teachers. It was the male counterpart to the Philadelphia's normal school, originally the upper division of Philadelphia High School for Girls.

Once a Bachelor's degree became the standard qualification for teachers, the normal schools that were run by the State System of Higher Education became colleges (e.g. West Chester, Cheyney, Indiana, etc.). However the Philadelphia schools were run by the School District of Philadelphia, which had less money, and were located only a few blocks from Temple University.

The School Song

Let others sing of college days,
Their Alma Mater true,
But when we raise our voices,
'Tis only High, for you.
We'll ne'er forget those days gone by,
Those glorious days of old,
When oft we sang the praises of
The Crimson and the Gold.

CHORUS

Dear high, dear Central High
Thy mem'ries never die.
Thy honor we'll cherish and
Laud it to the sky,
On ballfield or in life,
In peace or deadly strife,
For thee we all will labor,
For thee, oh, dear old High!

(Second verse to be sung by alumni only)

But when at last we leave behind
Thy shelt'ring portals wide,
Thy honor still we'll cherish,
Whate'er may us betide.
And when we congregate again
With tuneful voice and strong,
With joyful hearts once more we'll sing
This same old glorious song.

CHORUS

• Words by Horace M. Shell, 1907 and Francis A. Wade, 1907
• Music by John L. Waldman, 1907
• Arranged by Francis Murphy
• Second to the last line of the chorus was revised during the 1995–1996 school year

Presidents of Central High School

• Alexander Dallas Bache, LL.D. – 1839–1842
• John Seely Hart, LL.D. – 1842–1858
• Nicholas Harper Maguire, A.M. – 1858–1866
• George Inman Riché, A.M. – 1866–1886 (19th Class)
• Franklin Taylor, M.D. – 1886–1888
• Henry Clark Johnson, A.M., LL.B. – 1888–1893
• Robert Ellis Thompson, A.M., Ph.D., D.D., LL.D. – 1894–1920
• John Louis Haney, A.M., Ph.D., LL.D. – 1920–1943 (100th Class)
• William Hafner Cornog, A.M., L.H.D., Ph.D. – 1943–1955 (146th Class)
• Elmer Field, B.S., M.S., Ed.D. – 1955–1962 (122nd Class)
• William H. Gregory, B.S., Ed.M. – 1962–1969
• Howard Carlisle, B.S., A.M., Ed.D. – 1969–1983 (162nd Class)
• Sheldon S. Pavel, A.B., Ed.M, Ed.D. – 1984–2012
• Timothy J. McKenna, B.S., Ed. M. – 2012–present

Guide to Class Numbers

Since graduates are usually identified by class number, the year in which they graduated is not immediately obvious. This section explains the relation between class number and graduation date.

The first class graduated in June 1842. Through much of the school's history, there were two graduating classes per year, in January and June. But in some years, including all years after 1965, there was only one graduating class, in June. The following list details the correspondence between class number and graduation date.

1 June 1842
  2 June 1843
  3 January 1844
  4 June 1844
... 2 classes per year ...
 75 January 1880
 76 June 1880
 77 June 1881
 78 June 1882
 79 January 1883
... 2 classes per year ...
 95 January 1891
 96 June 1891
 97 June 1892
... 1 class per year ...
116 June 1911
117 January 1912
118 June 1912
.... 2 classes per year ...
223 January 1965
224 June 1965
225 June 1966
... 1 class per year ...

Thus, for classes graduating after 1965, the year of graduation equals the class number plus 1741.

Notable alumni

A

• Leon Abbett – former New Jersey governor (112th Class)
• Elliott Abrams – AccuWeather meteorologist, chief forecaster (223rd Class)
• Anthony G. Amsterdam – civil rights lawyer, professor at NYU (200th Class)
• Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz – poet and author (255th Class)
• Joe Augustyn – screenwriter, producer (229th Class)

B

• James P. Bagian – astronaut, physician (228th Class)
• Albert C. Barnes – art collector, founder of Barnes Foundation educational art institution (92nd Class)
• Edward Roy Becker – Federal Judge (graduated 1950)
• John C. Bell, Jr. – Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania (75th Class)
• Jim Braude – talk radio host (225th Class)
• Leo Braudy – cultural historian and film critic
• King Britt – DJ and record producer (245th Class)
• William H. Brown, III – former Chairman of the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (185th Class)
• Doc Bushong - Major League Baseball catcher and dentist (graduated 1876)

C

• George Campbell, Jr. – President of Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (220th Class)
• Philip Casnoff – actor (226th Class)
• Morris I. ("Moose") Charlap – Broadway composer (186th Class)
• Noam Chomsky – linguist and political activist (184th Class)
• Mark B. Cohen – Pennsylvania state legislator (225th Class)
• Frank "Tick" Coleman – one of the first three known African-American Eagle Scouts, educator (156th Class)
• Joel Cook – U.S. Congressman, journalist (33rd Class)
• Tarzan Cooper – basketball player for the New York Renaissance
• Bill Cosby – comedian and entertainer (left after 10th grade- 204th Class)
• Cassidy – rapper (would have been the 259th class, but he did not graduate from Central High School)

D

• Samuel Dash – professor at Georgetown Law (178th Class)
• James DePreist – orchestra conductor (202nd Class)
• John H. Dialogue – shipbuilder in Camden, New Jersey (5th Class)
• Ignatius L. Donnelly – author, politician, U.S. Congressman (13th Class)
• Rel Dowdell - filmmaker (248th Class)
• Joseph William Drexel – banker, philanthropist (13th Class)

E

• Thomas Eakins – painter (38th Class)
• Joshua Eilberg – U.S. Congressman

F

• Douglas J. Feith – former U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, a major architect of the 2003 invasion of Iraq (230th Class)
• Norman Fell – actor on Three's Company (176th Class)
• Samuel Simeon Fels – manufacturer, philanthropist (72nd Class)
• Lee Felsenstein – personal computer pioneer and activist (219th Class)
• Louis Filler – historian, writer, and professor at [[Antioch College] ] ( 151 st class, 1929 )
• Larry Fine – Larry of the Three Stooges (132nd Class)

G

• William Glackens – painter, co-founder of the Ashcan School art movement (90th Class)
• W. Wilson Goode, Jr. – Philadelphia City Councilman at Large, son of former mayor W. Wilson Goode (241st Class)
• E. Urner Goodman – early leader of the Boy Scouts of America (114th Class)
• Oscar Goodman – mayor of Las Vegas, mob defense lawyer (left after 10th grade)
• Charles Goren – bridge player and author (130th Class)
• Kermit Gosnell - abortion doctor found guilty of murder
• Robert Gross – Dean of Swarthmore College
• Shelly Gross – theatrical producer, author (170th Class)
• Richard Grossman - new music/ jazz pianist (204th class)
• Lee Guber – theatrical producer (170th Class)
• Daniel Guggenheim – industrialist and philanthropist, member of Guggenheim family (66th Class)
• Simon Guggenheim – industrialist, financier, philanthropist, U.S. Senator for Colorado (87th Class)

H

• John Harbeson – architect with H2L2 (111th Class)
• Joe Harris – mathematician at Harvard University
• Joseph Smith Harris – President of the Reading Railroad (24th Class)
• Quiara Alegría Hudes – playwright and author (254th Class)

I

• Albert Innaurato – playwright, theater director, and writer (225th Class)

J

• Major Jackson – poet and professor at University of Vermont (245th Class)

K

• Louis Kahn – architect (134th Class)
• Sam Katz – perennial Philadelphia Republican Mayoral Candidate (226th class)
• Ted Kaufman – U.S. Senator from Delaware (206th class)
• Charles Keinath – college basketball player and coach
• Alexander Kendrick – broadcast journalist (149th Class)
• Daniel Kevles – historian of science at Yale and California Institute of Technology
• Mark Kramer – jazz pianist (220th class)

L

• Cato T. Laurencin – orthopaedic surgeon, professor, chemical engineer (235th Class)
• Conrad C. Lautenbacher – Navy Vice Admiral (213th Class)
• Betty Liu – news anchor for Bloomberg Television (250th Class)
• Alain LeRoy Locke – author, philosopher, first African-American Rhodes Scholar (107th Class)
• Dr. I.(Israel) M. Levitt – author, Director Emeritus of the Fels Planetarium (146th class)
• Thomas F. Lewis – member U.S. House Of Representatives (1942)
• Jerome Lowenthal – classical pianist, chair of Juilliard School Piano Department (192nd Class)

M

• John Marzano – Major League Baseball catcher and broadcast analyst (240th Class)
• Gary K. Michelson – orthopedic spinal surgeon (225th Class)
• Jeffrey Milarsky – conductor of contemporary music (243rd Class)
• Roger M. Milgrim – intellectual property lawyer and treatise author (202d Class)
• Dr. Samuel Brown Wylie Mitchell – founder of Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity
• Louis J. Mordell – mathematician at University of Cambridge (111th Class)
• Joel Myers – founder of AccuWeather (208th Class)

N

• Robert N. C. Nix, Jr. – former Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court (186th Class)

O

• Eric Owens – opera singer (247th Class)

P

• Robert E. Pattison – former Governor of Pennsylvania (55th Class)
• David Pincus – businessman, art collector, and philanthropist
• Ramon L. Posel – founder of Ritz Theaters (186th Class)
• Hilary Putnam – philosopher (182nd Class)

R

• Jed S. Rakoff – United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York (215th Class)
• David Raksin – composer, "Grandfather of Film Music" (153rd Class)
• Conyers Read – historian (1899)
• Ralph T. Reed – former CEO of American Express (114th Class)
• William Reed – sprinter
• Allen Rosenberg – rower and rowing coach
• Arnold Roth – cartoonist, humorist (186th Class)

S

• Shunsuke Sato – world-renowned young violinist (261st Class)
• Morton Livingston Schamberg – modern artist
• Joseph Shallit - mystery novelist (156th Class)
• Bree Sharp – singer and songwriter (252nd Class)
• Lee M. Silver – professor of molecular biology Princeton University (227th Class)
• Tyree Simmons (aka DJ Drama) – hip hop artist and DJ (255th Class)
• Richard Bruce Silverman – chemistry professor and inventor of Lyrica (221st Class)
• John French Sloan – painter (92nd Class)
• Ben Stahl – Labor and civil rights activist
• Julie Stevens – actress, film director and producer (246th Class)
• Frank R. Stockton – writer and humorist (19th Class)
• Charles Stone III – film and ad director (243rd Class)

T

• John Baxter Taylor, Jr. – track and field athlete, first African-American Olympic Gold Medalist (107th Class)
• Teller – magician (224th Class)
• Howard Temin – geneticist, shared the 1975 Nobel Prize in Medicine (196th Class)
• Dylan Tichenor – film editor (245th Class)
• Arthur Tracy – vaudeville performer, singer, actor, known as "The Street Singer" (130th Class)

W

• John Wallowitch – composer, songwriter and cabaret performer (181st Class)
• Louis J. Weichmann – one of the chief witnesses for the prosecution in the conspiracy trial of the Abraham Lincoln assassination
• Andrew Weil – physician, author, proponent of integrative medicine (212th Class)
• Edward Weinberger – TV producer and writer (204th Class)
• Stephen William White – translator of Jules Verne and secretary of the Northern Central Railway (31st class)
• R. Seth Williams – District Attorney of Philadelphia (244th Class)
• Mark Antony Wilson – theologian and educator (245th Class)
• Alexander Woollcott – drama critic for The New Yorker (110th Class)
• Alan Wolfe – political scientist and sociologist (213th Class)
• Jeremiah Wright – former Senior Pastor of the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago (211th Class)
• Ed Wynn (until age 15) – entertainer, actor, comedian, producer (110th Class)

Y

• Charles Yerkes – industrialist and financier (27th Class)

Z

• Ernest M Zaiser Jr - General Manager McDonnell Douglas F-4 Technical Services, Representative Director McDonnell Douglas Japan, Vice President Operations McDonnell Douglas F-15 Technical Services {181st Class)

External links

• The Central High School Web Site