Phenix High School

Coordinates: 37°1′19.8″N 76°20′7.4″W / 37.022167°N 76.335389°W / 37.022167; -76.335389 Phenix High School was a school for African American students which was opened on the campus of the normal school which grew to become today's Hampton University near the town of Hampton and Fort Monroe in Elizabeth City County, Virginia in the period immediately following the conclusion of the American Civil War.

Phenix High School, first established in 1931, was named for George Perly Phenix (1864–1930), a native of Maine. Dr. Phenix who was the first administrator to hold the title of "president" of the university .[1] A popular administrator, Dr. Phenix died suddenly in a drowning accident a few months before the new school he had championed opened.[2]

The original building survives as Phenix Hall on the University's campus, and houses several research offices including the Department of Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences,[3] who hosts the data center for NASA's Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere mission, the only space mission managed by a historically black university.

In 1958, Phenix High School relocated to a new building off campus which was in the Hampton City Public School system. This was Hampton's only black high school at the time. The class of 1965 was the largest class to graduate from Phenix High School. They were the first class to start as freshmen and graduate as seniors. In 1968, three years later due to reorganization to accomplish desegregation of the Hampton public high schools, the second Phenix High School was renamed Pembroke High School, a name that did not reflect its black heritage. That building was closed in 1980, and the building now houses the Hampton Family YMCA and social services offices of the Hampton city government.

Hampton opened a new George P. Phenix School for pre-kindergarten through 8th grade in September 2010. The black citizens of Hampton had run a vigorous public campaign to make sure the heritage of the George P. Phenix name would not die in their city of Hampton, Virginia.

References

  1. ↑ http://www.dailypress.com/news/columnists/dp-uban-phenix,0,6106547.column?page=2
  2. ↑ http://phenixalumni.org/2.html
  3. ↑ "Hampton University Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences Department". Hampton University.

External links

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