English High School of Boston - History

History

Since its founding, English High School has had seven locations. Its first, on Derne Street at the rear of the Massachusetts State House, is marked by a metal plaque. Its second home (still standing), on the corner of Pickney and Anderson Streets, eventually became the Phillips School, a school for then free born and emancipated African Americans before the American Civil War. From 1844 to 1922, Boston English was a next door neighbor of the Boston Latin School, first near downtown Boston and then in a building on Warren Street (now demolished) in the South End. From 1954 to 1989, the school was across the street from Boston Latin at 78 Avenue Louis Pasteur. This site is now part of the Harvard Medical School. Its first head master was Dr. George B. Emerson, an early leader in educational reform. The School Committee establishing English High School was chaired by Samuel Adams Wells, the grandson of Governor Samuel Adams. The school was created at the urging of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association and was modeled after the Royal High School of Edinburgh, Scotland. English, like Boston Latin School, only admitted boys for the first 151 years of its history and did not become coeducational until 1972—although a separate high school for girls was established in Boston by Dr. Emerson in 1824.

The motto of the school has been: "The aim of every English High School boy is to become a man of honor and achievement." The current motto of the school is "College For All"