A true Pioneer: In 2010, Frankford High School celebrated its 100th anniversary. TIMES FILE PHOTO
Northeast Philly has plenty of schools.
In 2010, the year Frankford High School celebrated its 100th anniversary, the Northeast lost two big ones. Northeast Catholic High School and Cardinal Dougherty closed their doors in 2010 because of declining enrollment. Although neither school was in the Northeast, their student bodies included many kids from the Northeast.
All-boys North Catholic had opened in 1926 at Erie and Torresdale. It stayed an all-boys school to the end. Dougherty, named for Cardinal Dennis Dougherty, opened in 1956, and was at first a co-institutional school with boys on one side and girls on the other. It once was thought to be the largest Catholic high school in the world. Although in Olney, the school drew plenty of its students from the Northeast. The Godfrey Avenue institution went co-ed in 1983.
The archdiocese also was ready to shut down St. Hubert’s, but some tremendous school spirit made it a survivor. The all-girls school’s alums rallied, and money was found to keep it open. St. Hubert’s, founded in 1941, remains a Torresdale Avenue fixture.
Little Flower Catholic High School welcomed its first students in 1939, five years after the Northeast Times began publishing. The Lycoming Avenue school draws many students from Northeast Philly. It was and still is an all-girls school.
A year after the Northeast Times began publication, St. Cecilia parish in Fox Chase closed its two-year commercial school. It’s elementary school, founded in 1925, is still going strong.
In 1937, St. Matthew school opened in Mayfair. Over the years, it was built up, expanding in 1949, 1954 and 1962. Brown elementary school on Stanwood Street was rebuilt in 1937.
St. Katherine of Siena parish on the 9700 block of Frankford Avenue established its elementary school in 1938, four years after the Northeast Times began publishing. It was, however, a school without a building for a few years. In 1941, Cardinal Dennis Dougherty laid the cornerstone of the school’s first building on Convent Lane. In 1961, the current school building opened, and in 1970, a second floor was completed.
BUILD-UP
The Northeast added schools, as more and more houses were erected above Cottman Avenue in the middle of the 20th century. Several of the Northeast’s schools were founded after World War II and into the 1950s and the 1960s as the old village-like neighborhoods like Bustleton and Somerton were built up and new neighborhoods like Millbrook, Parkwood, Morrell Park and Normandy were developed.
The Solomon Solis-Cohen School opened on the 7000 block of Horrocks Street in 1946.
Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary parish school in Bustleton was founded on the rectory’s porch in 1948. The Rhawnhurst School opened that same year.
Abraham Lincoln High’s cornerstone was laid in 1949. The school’s name was actually controversial. It originally was to be called Mayfair High School, but residents from other neighborhoods objected. Holmesburg residents were particularly opposed. “Lincoln” was thought to be a compromise, but Mayfair residents were unhappy.
The Mayfair elementary school, however, was opened in 1949. The Fox Chase School’s fourth building began classes on Rhawn Street the same year.
The Phillies’ “Whiz Kids” got crushed in four games in the 1950 World Series, the same year the Thomas Holme School opened on Academy Road. The Gilbert Spruance School welcomed pupils to its building on the 6400 block of Horrocks Street in 1950.
J. Hampton Moore elementary school started up on Summerdale Avenue in 1951.
St. Christopher’s in Somerton opened in 1953. Father Judge High opened in 1954 in Holmesburg as an all-boys school and remains so today. St. Jerome parish school in Holme Circle opened in 1956.
Northeast High, which dates to 1890, opened its Cottman Avenue building in 1958. Immediately before that, it was at 8th and Lehigh. That same year was the first for the William Ziegler School on Saul Street.
Our Lady of Calvary in Millbrook opened in 1959, as did the Farrell School on the 8300 block of Castor Avenue. Another 1959 scholastic addition was the Fitzpatrick School on Knights Road. Erected to make classroom space for baby boomers, it was the Northeast’s largest elementary school.
1960s AND BEYOND
Bustleton elementary school opened on Bowler Street in 1961. The school’s name was changed to Anne Frank in 1987. Also welcoming students in 1961 was the Pollock School on Welsh Road.
St. Anselm’s school in Parkwood began enrolling students in 1963. George Washington High School on Bustleton Avenue in Somerton dates to just 1964.
The year 1965 was a big one for new Northeast schools. Opening that year were Greenberg in Bustleton, Stephen Decatur School on Academy Road and Christ the King on the 3200 block of Chesterfield Road in Morrell Park.
Loesche elementary school opened its doors on Tomlinson Road in 1966, the same year as Stearne elementary started classes on Unity Street in Frankford and the John Marshall School began on Griscom Street.
In 1966, Archbishop Ryan started as two schools - — one for girls and one for boys. That two-in-one high school lasted a little more than 20 years. By the late 1980s, moves were made to make Ryan co-educational. The first combined graduating class was in 1990.
St. Martha parish school opened in Modena Park in 1967, the same year John Hancock elementary school opened on Morrell Avenue. Just a few years ago, Labrum middle school merged with Hancock.
St. Dominic parish school on the 8500 block of Frankford Avenue was founded in 1874 and its new school building was erected in 1967. This school year is its first without Immaculate Heart of Mary nuns on the faculty.
Austin Meehan Middle School started out in 1970. That same year, the student enrollment of St. Martin of Tours, which was founded in 1925, peaked at 2,749. St. Martin’s is now a “mission school,” eligible for aid from Catholic universities, religious orders and from the archdiocese.
The Lawton School on Jackson Street was founded in 1902, but its latest building addition went up in 1973. Baldi Middle School opened on Verree Road in 1974.
Swenson Arts and Technical High School was established in 1977. Ben Franklin elementary was founded in 1916; more space was added to the Rising Sun Avenue school in 2003.
BIG CHANGES
Many well-known older Catholic schools in the Lower Northeast have closed down over the years as enrollments have decreased. Gone are St. Bartholomew, Our Lady of Consolation, St. William in Lawndale, Our Lady of Ransom, St. Bernard, St. Leo, St. Joachim and Mater Dolorosa. Some have found new purposes as the homes of charter schools. For example, two Frankford schools, St. Joachim’s and Mater Dolorosa, nicknamed “The Mot,” are now used by Sankofa Freedom Academy Charter School.
Resurrection of Our Lord and St. Timothy parish schools have remained open, but with slightly altered identities. Resurrection in Rhawnhurst, founded in 1929 and expanded in 1939 and in 1964, now is a regional Catholic school, having merged with Our Lady of Ransom in Castor Gardens in 2012, the same year St. Timothy in Lower Mayfair, which was founded in 1929, became a regional school, merging with Bridesburg’s Pope John Paul II.
Benjamin Rush Middle School on Knights Road, which opened in 1959 and closed in 2006, got new life as the Arts Academy at Benjamin Rush High School in 2008.
Samuel Fels High School, which had begun years ago as a middle school, opened its new building in 2009. Abraham Lincoln High School’s new digs opened the same year.
Charter schools are fairly new developments in education, and the Northeast is home to several of them: MaST, Franklin Towne, New Foundations, Northwood, Keystone, First Philadelphia Charter, Philadelphia Academy Charter, Mastery-Smedley, Sankofa and Tacony Academy Charter. The Walter Palmer charter on Harbison Avenue recently closed. ••
Archbishop Ryan High School opened in 1966 as two schools — one for girls and one for boys. By the late 1980s, moves were made to make Ryan co-educational. The first combined graduating class was in 1990. TIMES FILE PHOTO
School bells ring: Little Flower Catholic High School, pictured above in the mid-1980s, welcomed its first students in 1939. TIMES FILE PHOTO
