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Frankford High School published and printed matter
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Held at: Historical Society of Frankford [Contact Us]1507 Orthodox St., Philadelphia, PA, 19124
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Historical Society of Frankford. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
Frankford High School is a public high school in the School District of Philadelphia, serving the neighborhoods of Bridesburg and Frankford in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Frankford High School was established in 1910 as the Northeast branch of Central High School, known as Central High School North. During the first year, thirty-seven male students attended the school, located in a neighborhood farmhouse. Early students called themselves the "Pioneers," which is still used as the school mascot as of 2015.
In 1916, the school relocated to a building at the corner of Oxford Avenue and Wakeling Street. That same year, the school became independent of Central High School and changed its name to Frankford High School. Blue was added to the school's original colors of crimson and gold to differentiate itself from Central High School. Although the school was established as an all-male institution similar to Central, Frankford High School began to allow female students in February of 1916. A stadium was added to the school grounds in 1922, followed by a gymnasium in 1954. In 1959, Frankford High School voluntarily desegregated, following the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954. The school continued to expand with an addition to the lunchroom in 1965 and the construction of a new wing in 1970. Since its inception, the school has continued a tradition of fielding strong sports teams.
As of 2015, Frankford High School remains located at the corner of Oxford Avenue and Wakeling Street and continues its mission ""to provide all students with the academic, technological, and social skills needed to be productive and contributing members in our society." In addition to traditional courses of study, Frankford offers a well-known culinary arts program.
Bibliography:
Frankford High School. "About Us." School District of Philadelphia. Accessed December 11, 2015. http://webgui.phila.k12.pa.us/schools/f/frankford/about-us.
Reardon, Jennifer. "Frankford: Celebrating 100 Years at Frankford High School." Philadelphia Neighborhoods. April 11, 2010. Accessed December 11, 2015. http://philadelphianeighborhoods.com/2010/04/11/frankford-celebrating-100-years-at-frankford-high-school/.
This collection consists primarily of issues of The Pioneer, Frankford High School's student publication, but also contains one scrapbook, a typed commencement speech and brief school history from 1960, a few published versions of the school's history, one copy each of "The Record of the Second Graduating Class of Frankford High School" and "The Record of the Third Graduating Class of Frankford High School," printed graduation booklets written by the class of 1917, two issues of Alumnightly, a Frankford High School alumni publication, and two yearbooks (1970, 1971).
The Pioneer was Frankford High School's monthly student magazine. The issues available in the collection span 1910 to 1929. Some are signed and/or have materials inserted into them. There are several duplicate issues. The scrapbook is from the Class of June 1928's 25th reunion (1953) and contains alumni letters, ephemera, signatures and addresses of class members, post-graduation questionnaires, a few small photographs, and some reunion announcement newspaper clippings. The published versions of the school histories (1931, 1950, 1960, 1973) are from the school's 20th, 40th, 50th, and 60th anniversaries. There are at least two duplicates of each published history. There are two issues of the Alumnightly (1929, 1931).
Summary descriptive information on this collection was compiled in 2014-2016 as part of a project conducted by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania to make better known and more accessible the largely hidden collections of small, primarily volunteer run repositories in the Philadelphia area. The Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories (HCI-PSAR) was funded by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
This is a preliminary finding aid. No physical processing, rehousing, reorganizing, or folder listing was accomplished during the HCI-PSAR project.
In some cases, more detailed inventories or finding aids may be available on-site at the repository where this collection is held; please contact Historical Society of Frankford directly for more information.
Organization
Subject
Place
- Publisher
- Historical Society of Frankford
- Finding Aid Author
- Finding aid prepared by Sarah Leu and Anastasia Matijkiw through the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories
- Sponsor
- This preliminary finding aid was created as part of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories. The HCI-PSAR project was made possible by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
- Access Restrictions
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Contact Historical Society of Frankford for information about accessing this collection.