Fairfax High School was founded in 1924 under the direction of Principal Rae G. Van Cleve, for whom the athletic field is named. When first built, with a backdrop of the iconic rotunda and Dewitt Swann
Auditorium, a reflecting pond was the first thing students saw when they arrived at school. The school has seen numerous renovations over the years. The original Spanish Colonial Revival main building did not meet earthquake safety standards. In order to comply
with Earthquake and modernization codes, the main building was demolished and rebuilt in 1966. However, the historic D. S. Swan Auditorium and iconic Rotunda were spared by preservationists and retrofitted. In 1971, a magnitude 6.7 earthquake
struck Los Angeles, severely damaging other schools. The rotunda was not demolished during the rebuilding phase in 1966, leaving it as one of the only two rotundas on the west coast. The theater was renovated in 2014.
Greenway Court, originally built in 1939 as a social hall by the students at Fairfax as a class project, was also spared and was moved to its current location on Fairfax Avenue, where it was converted into a theater in 1999 by the Greenway Arts Alliance and renamed the Greenway Court Theater.
Former NFL official Jim Tunney served as the school's principal from 1964 to 1970. Most of the current campus facilities, except for those mentioned above, were built between 1966 and 1968.
When the 1971 San Fernando earthquake struck with a magnitude of 6.5–6.7, nearby Los Angeles High School was damaged severely and closed for repairs. Students from Los Angeles High attended Fairfax High on "double sessions", with Fairfax students using the campus from 7 am to 12 noon, and LA High students from 12:30 pm to 5 pm.
Fairfax was the foreign language magnet school in the 1960s and 1970s, offering Hebrew, German, Chinese and Latin, among other languages. The Fairfax Magnet Center for Visual Arts opened in 1981 and remains the only visual arts magnet in the Los Angeles Unified School District.
In 1984, Dr. Virginia Uribe, founded LAUSD's Project 10 program, a dropout prevention program specifically for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students in the United States.[7]
Organized by a group of local theater artists, the first Melrose Trading Post flea market was held in 1996 in the school's parking lot. Regarded as the most successful on-going fund-raising activity in the LAUSD, the flea market evolved into the Greenway Arts Alliance, the Friends of Fairfax and the Institute for the Arts at Fairfax High School, all which are of immense benefit to the school and students.[8]
According to U.S. News & World Report, 92% of Fairfax's student body is "of color", with 79% of the student body coming from economically disadvantaged households, determined by student eligibility for California's reduced-price meal program.[9]
In the 1950s, Fairfax High School was known for having a large Jewish student body,[10] as a Jewish community surrounded the school. It became known as a "Jewish" high school, and some non-Jewish parents withdrew their children from Fairfax as they felt discomfort with the Jewish character of the school.[11] In 1953, Fairfax High introduced Modern Hebrew classes, initially taught by the principal of the Beverly-Fairfax Jewish Community Center, Ronnie Tofield.[10]
The racial composition became significantly more multi-cultural following the integration efforts of 1968. As Fairfax principal William Layne told the Los Angeles Times in 1975, “Fairfax began changing in 1968. Then the boundaries were adjusted to include an area past Pico. It caused a trauma to what had been an all-white, academic school. There was strong reaction from the community as well. The senior citizens got upset when they saw a kid they couldn't identify with. There was also unrest at school, fearfulness, and an increase in thefts and people being molested."[12]
Eventually, racial tensions subsided as the school worked toward an active integration plan led by Layne.
The table below represents the number of enrolled students at Fairfax High School through 2003–2007.
Fairfax High School re-opened in fall 2008 reconfigured into a complex consisting of the existing Fairfax Magnet Center for Visual Arts and five new small learning communities (SLCs). The campus was divided into six areas of "contiguous space". Non-magnet students and staff were reorganized into five new schools-within-a-school. Subsequently, in 2010, two of the SLCs were replaced by a single SLC, bringing the total down to four SLCs and the Magnet. Currently, these SLCs are:
Academy of Media & Performing Arts (AMPA)
Academy of International Business and Communications (IBC)
Health Sciences Academy (HSA)
School of Mathematics, Science and Technology (SMST).
Fairfax is home to the Fairfax Magnet Center for Visual Arts, which attracts students from across the 700 square miles (1,800 km2) of the district. It opened in 1981 and is the only visual arts magnet in Los Angeles Unified School District.
Fairfax High School's outer South side is home to the Greenway Arts Alliance (not an FHS entity), which operates the Greenway Court Theater, a 99-seat Equity-waiver playhouse, and through the Institute for the Arts at Greenway, provides non-LAUSD arts educational programs, mentoring, and employment opportunities to Fairfax students.
Since 1997, the Melrose Trading Post outdoor flea market has created opportunities for Fairfax High School and the surrounding neighborhood. Money raised by this nonprofit organization from the low-cost patron admission and vendor booth fees fuels an off-campus, arts education program called Institute for the Arts at Greenway.
Annette Kleinbard (later changed her name to Carol Connors),[19] lead singer of the Teddy Bears ("To Know Him Is to Love Him"). As Connors, co-wrote "Gonna Fly Now" from Rocky, and the Rip Chords' "Hey Little Cobra".
Lenny Krayzelburg (born 1975, as Leonid Krayzelburg), backstroke swimmer, Olympic gold medalist, and former world record holder[50]
^"'The Chosen' Almost Wasn't". Los Angeles Times. December 16, 1930. p. 19. Retrieved September 25, 2022. She was well known in Hollywood, a graduate of Fairfax High, playing with Paramount and Pathe.
^Cromelin, Richard (June 18, 2011). "LARRY 'WILD MAN' FISCHER, 1944 - 2011; Vagabond singer caught Zappa's ear". Los Angeles Times. p. AA5. Retrieved October 9, 2022. Lawrence Wayne Fischer was born Nov. 6, 1944, in Los Angeles. He attended Fairfax High School, but his home life was turbulent and he was sent to mental institutions as a teenager.
^"Ex-USC star, Rams QB Jim Hardy dies at 96". Los Angeles Times. February 22, 2011. p. D1. ProQuest853015243. [W]hen Guetta was 15, his father moved the family to Los Angeles. [...] His father soon returned to France and passed away, leaving Guetta and his siblings to fend for themselves. He attended Fairfax High for about a year, despite speaking no English.
^"Ex-USC star, Rams QB Jim Hardy dies at 96". Toronto National Post. August 20, 2019. ProQuest2276692553. A three-time letterman at USC, Hardy, who saw his first USC game at the Coliseum at the age of 8, attended Fairfax High in Los Angeles, then eventually went on to become an inductee in the USC Athletic Hall of Fame in 1999 and the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame in 1994.
^Wright, Rick (January 20, 2021). "Duke City native Leo eager to defend crown". Albuquerque Journal. ProQuest2479196455. Leo recalled his father, Miguel, a single parent, taking him out of Albuquerque to Los Angeles, where Angelo trained and attended Fairfax High School.
^Taylor, Clarke (August 31, 1980). "'The Chosen' Almost Wasn't". Los Angeles Times. p. 29 (Calendar). Retrieved September 25, 2022. Miller is an LA native and a graduate of Fairfax High.
^Rosenberg, Scott (January 1, 1987). "Fairfax Has the Horses in City Title Race". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 10, 2012. As of the 1986–87 school year, Montgomery was a junior at Fairfax.
^Sweeting, Adam (September 9, 2022). "Mo Ostin, record label executive who nurtured the careers of Neil Young, James Taylor and Prince". The Guardian. pp. SS2-7. ProQuest2717107409. When he was 13 he moved with his parents and brother, Gerald, to Los Angeles, where they lived in the Fairfax district and ran a small fresh produce market. Ostin attended Fairfax high school, where he headed the music society, and then went to UCLA to study economics.
^Whatever Happened to Baby Peggy? by Diana Serra Cary, page 197
^Gheorghiu, Cristian (July 5, 2012). "KCET interview". kcet.org. Archived from the original on July 6, 2012. Retrieved July 8, 2012.
^Peltz, Jim (January 5, 2010). "JIM PELTZ / ON THE CLIPPERS; Turning it over, then around; After Clippers' sloppy first half, Gordon and Kaman help pull it together. / CLIPPERS 105 PORTLAND 95". Los Angeles Times. p. C4. ProQuest422268055. Smith, 26, who grew up in Inglewood and attended Fairfax High, has made accuracy one of his strengths since joining the NBA in the 2006-07 season with the Minnesota Timberwolves. passed away, leaving Guetta and his siblings to fend for themselves. He attended Fairfax High for about a year, despite speaking no English.
^Littleton, Cynthia (Variety.com) (June 28, 2015). "Veteran comedy writer Chris Thompson, on eve of comeback bid, found dead". The Calgary Sun. ProQuest2168783696. Born in Detroit, Thompson moved to Los Angeles with his family around the age of 12. He attended Fairfax High School but never graduated.
^Leighton, Leslie Gayle (June 28, 2015). "Howard Swan, Charles Hirt, and Roger Wagner: Their influences and the building of choral culture in southern California". University of Southern California. p. 14. ProQuest1026572961. The family relocated to southern California when [Howard Shelton] Swan was six in 1913, his father eventually becoming principal of Fairfax High School—the very same high school Roger Wagner attended.