Phillips School

School in Massachusetts, US

Phillips School

General information
Location| Beacon Hill
Address| Private Residence: Pinckney and Anderson
Town or city| Boston
Country| United States
Coordinates| 42°21′32″N 71°04′04″W﻿ / ﻿42.358974°N 71.067835°W﻿ / 42.358974; -71.067835

The Phillips School was a 19th-century school located in Beacon Hill, Boston, Massachusetts. It is now a private residence. It is on the Black Heritage Trail and its history is included in walking tours by the Boston African American National Historic Site. Built in 1824, it was a school for white children. After Massachusetts law from 1855 required school desegregation, Phillips was one of the first integrated schools in Boston.

## History

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### English High School

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Main article: English High School of Boston

The school was first the English High School, built between 1823 and 1825. Its architecture is typical of other 19th century schools in Boston.[1][2][3]

### Phillips Grammar School

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Portrait of Phillips, from Boston Monthly Magazine, 1825

In 1844, it was converted to a grammar school and was named the Phillips Grammar School after John Phillips, the first mayor of Boston and father of Wendell Phillips, a noted abolitionist.[1][2][3]

The school educated nearby children, predominantly from wealthy families. In contrast to the Abiel Smith School, which was the public school for African American children from 1835 to 1855, the Phillips School was considered one of the best schools in the city.[1]

Black Bostonians fought tirelessly for equal educational opportunities throughout the 19th century. Benjamin tried unsuccessfully in 1847 to have his daughter enrolled in a white school near his home, and then at Phillips School. When Boston schools were finally integrated in 1855, by an act of the Massachusetts legislature, the Phillips School became one of the first integrated schools in Boston.[1][2]

### Wendell Phillips School

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In 1863,[nb 1] the Phillips School moved to a new building on Phillips Street (formerly Southac Street).[1] It was renamed the Wendall Phillips School for the abolitionists Wendell Phillips, son of the original namesake, John Phillips. In the early 1870s, Elizabeth Smith, daughter of abolitionist John J. Smith, started teaching at the Phillips School and was probably the first African American to teach in an integrated Boston public school.[1]

## Black Heritage Trail

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The house is a Boston African American historical site located on the Black Heritage Trail in Beacon Hill.[2][4][5]

The National Park Service wrote:

> The historic buildings along today's Black Heritage Trail® were the homes, businesses, schools and churches of a thriving black community that organized, from the nation's earliest years, to sustain those who faced local discrimination and national slavery, struggling toward the equality and freedom promised in America's documents of national liberty.[5]

Boston African American Heritage Trail

## Gallery

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* Engraving of the second home of The English High School, 1824. The first building in North America built specifically for a high school. Later renamed Phillips School. Semi-Centennial History of The English High School. Boston. May 2, 1871.

* Phillips School, Homans, Sketches of Boston, Past and Present. 1851.

## Notes

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1. ^ The Museum of African History states that the school was moved in 1861.[3]

## References

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1. ^ a b c d e f "Phillips School". National Park Service. Retrieved April 26, 2013. This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Park Service.
2. ^ a b c d "Boston African American NHS Park Brochure, Side 2" (PDF). National Park Service. Retrieved April 26, 2013. This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Park Service.
3. ^ a b c "The Phillips School". Museum of African American History. Retrieved April 26, 2013.
4. ^ David L. Scott; Kay W. Scott (1997). Guide to the National Park Areas, Eastern States. Globe Pequot. pp. 110–112. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
5. ^ a b "Boston African American NHS Park Brochure, Side 1" (PDF). National Park Service. Retrieved April 26, 2013. This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Park Service.

## External links

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* Phillips School

* v
* t
* e

Boston African American community prior to the Civil War

* Boston African American National Historic Site
* Black Heritage Trail
* Slavery in the colonial United States

Prominent individuals|

* Macon Bolling Allen (lawyer, judge)
* William G. Allen (college professor)
* Crispus Attucks (killed during Boston Massacre)
* Leonard Black (minister, slave memoirist)
* John P. Coburn (abolitionist, soldier)
* Ellen and William Craft (slave memoirists, abolitionists)
* Rebecca Lee Crumpler (physician)
* Lucy Lew Dalton (abolitionist)
* Thomas Dalton (abolitionist)
* Hosea Easton (abolitionist, minister)
* Moses Grandy (abolitionist, slave memoirist)
* Leonard Grimes (abolitionist, minister)
* Primus Hall (abolitionist, Rev. War soldier)
* Prince Hall (freemason, abolitionist)
* Lewis Hayden (abolitionist, politician)
* John T. Hilton (abolitionist, author, businessman)
* Thomas James (minister)
* Barzillai Lew (Rev. War soldier)
* George Latimer (escaped slave)
* Walker Lewis (abolitionist)
* George Middleton (1735–1815) (Rev. War soldier, Freemason, activist)
* Robert Morris (lawyer, abolitionist, judge)
* William Cooper Nell (abolitionist, writer)
* Susan Paul (teacher, abolitionist, author)
* Thomas Paul (minister)
* John Swett Rock (dentist, doctor, lawyer, abolitionist)
* John Brown Russwurm (college grad., teacher)
* John J. Smith (abolitionist, politician)
* Maria W. Stewart (abolitionist, public speaker, journalist)
* Baron Stow (minister)
* Samuel Snowden (minister, abolitionist)
* Edward G. Walker (abolitionist, lawyer, politician, son of David Walker)
* David Walker (abolitionist, father of Edward G. Walker)
* Phillis Wheatley (poet, author)

Relevant topics and
associated individuals|

| Black nationalism|

* Back-to-Africa movement (See Paul Cuffe \- William Gwinn)

|

Legal cases|

* Dred Scott v. Sandford 1857 Supreme Court decision
* Freedom suits of 1781 (See Elizabeth Freeman \- Quock Walker)
* Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 (See: Anthony Burns \- Shadrach Minkins \- Thomas Sims)

History of slavery|

* Charles Apthorp
* Bunch-of-Grapes
* Merchants Row

Organizations|

| Abolitionism|

* Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (interracial)
* Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society (interracial)
* Massachusetts General Colored Association (abolitionism, equality)
* Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society (interracial)
* Prince Hall Freemasonry

|

Education|

* Home of Primus Hall (1798–1806)
* African Meeting House (1806–1835)
* Abiel Smith School (1835-?)

Religion|

* African Meeting House
* Charles Street African Methodist Episcopal Church
* Twelfth Baptist Church

Other|

* Bucks of America (Mass. Rev. War soldiers)
* Prince Hall Freemasonry

Historic sites
or neighborhoods|

* Abiel Smith School
* African Meeting House and Museum
* Black Beacon Hill (Joy Street, Southack Street (now Phillips))
* Black Heritage Trail
* Boston African American National Historic Site
* Charles Street Meeting House
* John Coburn House
* Lewis and Harriet Hayden House
* George Middleton House
* William C. Nell House
* Phillips School
* John J. Smith House

Influential publications|

* Freedom's Journal
* The Liberator
* Walker's Appeal

Related|

* Copp's Hill Burying Ground
* William Lloyd Garrison
* Isaac Knapp
* Abolition Riot of 1836

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