The Beginning

Mason Street: A New Home, a New Growth

In 1870, the school moved from Mason Street to West Newton Street, where it remained for many years.  In 1872, the separation between Girls’ High School and the Normal School took place, with the Normal School becoming a separate institution.  This separation testified to the growth of the school and the importance of both areas of focus of the original school.  At the time of the move to West Newton Street, it was viewed as a show place of the city.  It was considered to be “the largest and costliest school-edifice in the United States.  It came at the time of the expansion of the city into the South End and preceded the Latin and English High Schools by a decade.

The new school building was dedicated on April 19, 1871 and celebrated two achievements; first the recognition of the importance in the education of young women and secondly the beginning of a movement in visual education; the adornment of the school with works of art that captured the imaginations of the girls as they walked through the halls.

In 1874, the fourth-year advanced work, long a labor of love for students and teachers, received official recognition; but even the fourth year did not meet the requirements to gain acceptance to colleges.  Most colleges admitting women were far away or had high entrance requirements. 

During 1876 to 1885, enhancements for the students were made, such as nutritious lunches, improvements in ventilation, the rearrangement of seats to provide proper lighting and the fire drill.  During this same period special effort was placed on the advanced student program for those who were aspiring to enter college.  There were also changes taking place in boys’ education that would result in the rapid increase in enrollment of the Girls’ High School.  

The City was growing through the annexation of several high populated suburbs – Roxbury in 1868, Brighton, Charlestown, Dorchester and West Roxbury in 1874.  Students were given the choice to attend their local district co-educational schools or attend the schools in town.  Given the reputation and prestige of the in-town schools, families often opted for the latter despite the commute.  Girls who hoped to teach, now needed a four-year course in high school to qualify for admission to the Normal School.  The Girls’ High School was the only school that could properly prepare them and soon received the reputation of being “the chief source of supply of teachers for the Boston schools.”  The abolition of the entrance examinations for high schools also raised enrollments, along with the issuance of free textbooks.  Beyond question, the Girls’ High School of mid-1870’s was realizing the goals of profitably engaging girls during adolescence, enriching their preparation for responsible adult living, and setting them on a road of gainful employment, primarily as teachers.  The only opportunity still missing enjoyed by their brothers,  was a full college-preparatory curriculum. 

In 1878, the Girls’ Latin School was established to respond to this need, resulting in the Girls’ High School once again sharing its ample quarters with a sister institution.  The Girls’ Latin School boasted having the same course of study as that of the Public Latin school for boys.  Although the two schools were independently run, the combination offered Latin, French, German and the higher English branches and was noted as being “the largest high school in New England, having nearly 800 young women 14 to 22 years old.”

Opportunity and Challenge

Changes in the curriculum of the school near the end of the nineteenth century reflect the changes in the status of women in our culture.  With the option of choosing between French and German, added in 1860, the students of early decades had pursued a fixed course of study either preparing for the Normal School or terminating their educations after the course of study with a more intellectual education than that offered by the delicately feminine finishing schools.  In 1901, the Boston High Schools began offering the elective system, allowing students to choose from a diverse schedule of curriculum and in 1898, Girls’ High School began offering the commercial course, a body of commercial studies, exclusively offered up to that time, by private business schools and colleges.  By 1909, the commercial curriculum had become the largest department in the school.  Hundreds of women had won for their school the esteem of Boston businessmen.  The program course combined general culture – through science, history, civil government, English, foreign languages and business studies.

The college course, established in 1899, provided girls who persistently insisted on attending Girls’ High School, despite the housing of the Girls’ Latin School in the same building, with the opportunity to prepare for college.  As the school neared its 50 year mark, it offered four curricula; normal preparatory, commercial, college preparatory, and general – reflecting the triumphal progress of education for girls.  It should also be noted, that for the first thirty years the regular faculty, except for the Master, were women.

Beginning with a healthy sense of rivalry between the girls of the Latin School who published The Jabberwock, the first edition of The Distaff, formerly called the Waif, was published in April, 1890.  The May and June issues of that year doubled in size.  Who could have expected that it would become the substantial publication that it did, with nine issues per year through several decades, giving hundreds of girls the great experience of producing a manuscript that became a labor or love composed of essays, stories, poems, school news, drawings all contributed by the students. Girls paid an annual fee of $.75 and later $1.00 to enjoy a year’s worth of issues.  Students producing the magazine got experience in running an enterprise with its own budget and did so successfully that they were able to enrich the school with pictures, casts, and other gifts out of the excess.  Because the magazine had been both literary and topical, it reflected the life and interests of the school for more than 60 years.  Not an issue failed to repay the reader with interest in the school’s history; but particularly of value are the many special editions through the years devoted to the memory of a teacher or a master or some special event, such as the semicentennial.

The semicentennial was observed on January 16, 1903 in the school hall, lit for the first time with new electric lights.  The program began with greetings from the President of the Girls’ High School Association and included festive music, and a review in five addresses of “Aspects of the Life of the School.”  The golden celebration closed with the first singing of the School Ode, written by Miss Florence Dix, of the class of 1868.  The beauty of her gift still blesses every gathering of the school.

Early in the 20th century, it was recognized that the happy circumstance of over population of the school had arrived.  The building, once deemed “large enough for all future needs” was designed for about 900 students.  Early in the century, more than 1,200 students strained its facilities so that classes had to meet in basement rooms and even corridors.  As a result of the overcrowding, students were no longer able to meet in a single assembly; a precious loss.  The first step to ease conditions, was to remove the upper classes of the Latin School to quarters in Copley Square, in 1907.  A few years later, both the Normal School and the Girls’ Latin School were finally housed in a handsome new building in the Fenway.  This allowed Girls’ High school some much needed breathing room.

A New Century

In the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, Boston, like many major cities of the country, experienced great changes influenced by successive waves of immigration.  Schools had to meet the challenges of housing and assimilating newcomers.  High schools fared better than elementary schools in this, as many foreign-born parents of English-speaking children, eager to provide their children with every opportunity that America offered, were tested in their ability to adapt.  School attendance and labor laws also conspired to limit education of the young, thus a great number dropped out after one year.  So great was the concern that in 1908, the 1,259 girls present were asked to provide the place where their father had been born.  Somewhat less than a third were native American (many of those fathers may have been of the first generation here); about a quarter were from the British Isles and Canada; and about half represented twenty-five nationalities.  Year by year to the present, the proportionate strength of the different nationalities varies, but the great mingling of nations and cultures marks the Girls’ High School of the twentieth century.

As the school became more complex with a diversity of gifts and interests among the students, and to provide each girls with a sense of comfort and security, students were encouraged to participate in student organizations and the section and home room became more important to each girl, creating a sense of belonging and creating a “family-unit”.

A new phase of musical activity began in 1910, with the organization of the Glee Club.  In early 1910, the seniors banded together in a League of Honor, and pledged to maintain a high standard in their school life and to encourage adherence to the same standard throughout the school.  The League of Honor eventually became the Student Council, which had a history undreamed of in 1910.

In 1909, changes in the whole public school system of Boston resulted in all high schools becoming four-year schools.  This meant that graduates of other schools needing four years to enter the Normal School came to Girls’ High School for fourth-year work.  But the necessity of housing all students for four years produced new congestion and necessitated the enlargement of the building with an annex in 1910-1911.  Once again, in the Autumn of 1911, the physical size of the building promised to serve the foreseeable needs of the rising enrollment.

In 1915, the Honor Roll of the graduating class was established.  The Commercial Course, of which almost sixty percent of the students were enrolled and most sensitive to young women going from high school to work, was enriched in bookkeeping and office practices.  In 1916, salesmanship was added to prepare girls for business.  This course, the first of its kind in Boston, in partnership with Boston merchants, combined study and supervised work experience.  In 1923, the school introduced two-year elective courses in each of the basic branches of home economics, satisfying those who wished a combination of studies with specialized training within a pattern of general high school coursework.

Across many years World War I, both leading up to it and during it, impacted the life of the school.  From April, 1917, the spirit of service which prompted the girls of the Civil War to sew uniforms, united the students to work for the Red Cross and other agencies.  During this period, the girls produced about eighteen thousand finished articles of socks, stockings, sweaters, afghans and bandages of all sorts.  Students with clerical skills did uncounted hours of volunteer work at Red Cross headquarters and elsewhere.  In addition, despite hard times, the girls raised $2,603.93 for war relief between April, 1917, and May, 1919.  The Alumnae, many of whom were engaged in war efforts at home or overseas, watched appreciatively the service of their younger school sisters.  In the name of the school, the Eliot Memorial, part of the Girls’ High School Association, adopted three French orphans.  Students and Alumnae combined their efforts to provide the orphans with a gift of one hundred dollars.  This work, bound the alumnae and the students together in service of the now big school with an enrollment of 2,500 students.

An Era of Expansion

In 1926, the school saw the creation of the role of Vocational Counselor, engaged in developing a guidance program which combined classes studying occupations, individual conferences, contact with parents and employers, and placement.  That same year, the roles of Librarian and Adviser of Girls were created, reflecting the growing complexity of school life and the world outside.  At the time, the school was very crowded, with freshmen housed in a group of converted residences on Massachusetts Avenue and a portable structure filling the small yard.  Space need to be found for the new services; one located in basement rooms and a remodeled room on the first floor became a conference room and space for the Vocational Counselor and Adviser, and another most spacious and well lit room became the library.

In 1927, the school celebrated its seventy-fifth anniversary with a huge gathering of the alumnae on November 12, 1927, with a pageant at Symphony hall on April 25, 1928 and the publication of the review of the third-quarter of a century.  Four hundred and sixth people, graduates, teachers and guests, made up the procession to the gymnasium for dinner at the celebration.  Between the Class of 1861 and that of 1927, sixty-seven classes could be checked off on the roster of the alumnae. 

Through the records of the late 1920’s, there are frequent statements about the physical condition of the building that had become “the pride of Boston.”  The school was suffering from the handicaps of division, overcrowding and age.   Floors were sagging, beams rotting, and the roof leaked.  The floors, stairs and wainscoting were all of well-seasoned wood, and formed a fire hazard.  In 1927, the Annex on Massachusetts Avenue was condemned as a fire hazard.  Although citizen groups and Boston papers pleaded the case, nothing was done until a second colony, the Common Street Annex was opened for overcrowding of the main building and the already condemned Annex which saw continued use until 1945.  Perhaps the deepening depression of the early 1930’s created the delay and added to the disappointment in not having a new building.  In 1936-1937, the enrollment swelled to its highest count, 2,649.  Enrollment was climbing, but some girls came to school and stayed only because they could not find employment.

While the entire city was hit hard by unemployment, the school did its own appreciable relief work.  Those who could spare pennies bought candy and other little items, providing some small profit to the Student Council.  Students patronized home-talent shows and travel talks given by teachers and generous professional lecturers whom the Library Service Club interested in the project of raising money.  Events raised amounts worthy of praise; a Sophmore Funny Show netted $50.00; travel talks netted $84.40 one year and $195.83 the following; candy sales $25.00 and $10.00 both for five scholarships; a rummage sale $30.00.  Funds went to carfares, shoes, rubbers, dental work, glasses, milk, lunches, sewing materials and any need that the money could serve.  These were the ways in which the school took care of her own. 

And there was activity beyond the local needs.  Students participated in the World Friendship among Children program, sending dolls to Japan, postcards to France, Holland and the Philippines, and school bags to Mexico.  The Student Council and the Library Service Club prepared cartons of food for distribution at Christmas and was able to send the Boston Family Welfare Department thirty-six packages of food in 1936.  In the 1930’s and 1940’s, the Glee Club and the Dramatic Club and interscholastic debating team participated in radio broadcasts as well as The Distaff and the Yearbook winning honors with the interscholastic press.

Along with changes in activities in student life, curriculum changes were taking place.  In the mid-1930’s adaptations of older courses occurred such as, foreign languages including cultural history; a course in mathematics stressed budgeting and other forms of finance for the homemaker; more use of contemporary books encouraged reading; a new emphasis in art on history and cultural significance meant not only art appreciation but also visits to the Art Museum and private galleries and studios of Boston; an interdepartmental course prepared seniors for civil service examinations included a review of arithmetic, English, and fundamental business skills.

The opening teachers’ meeting in September, 1941, forecasted the shadow of our entry into the war.  World War II changed the life of the school more than the two great wars of the earlier generations.  To ease the strain on public transportation, schools in-town opened at ten o’clock and closed at half past three; classes were interrupted while teachers registered men for the draft and distributed ration books; teaches and students joined in the Red Cross and other relief work, the many activities of civil defense, and the drives to gather scarce materials for the war effort; some of the younger teachers entered the armed services.  The sales of defense stamps and war bonds totaled $67,711.25 and the school had the honor of sending its War Scrap Book, rated best in Massachusetts by the Treasury Department, to the National Exhibit in Washington.  Seniors in good standing left to work as early as February and carried on the school records as ‘constructively present’.  In the summer vacations girls worked on farms, in shipyards as welders, in shops, in hospitals; in every phase of the war effort at home.

During the war, the enrollment stayed about 2,000, so even with the seniors absent at work, assemblies still crowded the hall.  The colony on Common Street and Massachusetts Avenue, long condemned, were vacated in 1945.  This meant no ninth grade for some time.  But the movement of the population to the suburbs, the demolition of old tenements in the city and the lowered birth rate of the thirties, combined to reduce the post-war enrollment in all high schools.  The number stabilized around 1,200 in 1948.  At the time, the distribution of concentration was: 296 girls preparing for college, 41 in general courses, 893 in the commercial course.

On April 25th and 26th, 1952, the school reviewed its first century in the presentation of The Lady Is a Hundred.  All took part in this joyous celebration, from the smallest stitch in a costume to the beautiful intricacy of dance and choir, giving testimony anew to the spirit that drew the past, present and future together.

Service, Loyalty, Reverence – these are the golden words on the school seal.  They echo through the annals of the Alumnae Association in its work for and with the younger, active school.