Penfield High School (PHS) is a public high school in Penfield, New York, United States. It offers a comprehensive curriculum for students in grades 9–12.Penfield High School website U.S. News & World Report ranks Penfield High School 219th within the state of New York and lists the total minority enrollment at 21%, with 23% of students described as economically disadvantaged. Penfield Senior High School is the only high school in the Penfield Central School District.
History Penfield Seminary The predecessor of Penfield High School was the Penfield Seminary, built in 1857 at 1836 Penfield Road, near Five Mile Line Road, in the 'Four Corners' area of Penfield. The school charged admission and was built to accommodate 150 students.Images of America: Penfield, by Martin M. Wamp, 2004 It operated as a private academy until 1871. In 1874, Penfield Union Free School District No. 1 purchased the building for $2,500 (USD), and the structure was used as a public school until 1907, when it was sold to the local fire department. The building is still used by the Penfield Fire Company, and is visible behind the modern firehouse in the Four Corners. A "first commencement" program suggests an opening date of September 1896. A high school graduation was mentioned in a local newspaper in 1900.Monroe County Mail, June 28, 1900 The Class of 1902 consisted of three graduates.Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, June 20, 1902, pg. 5
1907 high school
A new union school building was constructed in 1907 at 2070 Five Mile Line Road, just a little north of the Four Corners.Rochester Times Union, Oct. 5, 1953 A high school alumni group was organized as early as 1912.Fairport Herald, July 31, 1912, pg 9 (Note: this and most newspaper citations in this article are available online at OldFulton.com) In the fall of 1913, the high school opened for the year with a faculty of six: principal George Cooper; preceptress Mable Thomas; teachers Edna Payne (sixth and seventh grades); Cora Drummon (fourth and fifth grades); Helen Thomas (second and third grades)and Julia McNab (primary).Fairport Herald, August 27, 1913, pg 7 The class of 1919 consisted of only one graduate, Luella Engelhart.Monroe County Mail, June 19, 1919, pg 2
1932 enlarged high school
A major expansion of the high school was dedicated February 5, 1932. The new construction mostly replaced the older building, which remained as a small wing on the north side of the building. The new building was faced in brick, Colonial in design, three stories high, with eight class rooms, and a combination gymnasium and auditorium seating 500. Altogether the combined grade and high school building consisted of about 40,000 square feet of space. The addition was constructed for $200,000 (USD) and designed for a capacity of 450 students. At the time of dedication, the total attendance was 265 students, of which 67 were in the high school.Fairport Harold Mail February 11, 1932 In September 1934, Penfield High School had five "post graduates", four seniors, eleven juniors, thirty-seven sophomores, and forty-three freshmen.Fairport Herald Mail, September 20, 1934, pg 8
Population growth The Town of Penfield, New York had been created in 1840, when it was set off from the Town of Webster, New York.A Brief History of Penfield, www.penfield.org/index.php?pr=dpt-historian-paste The population of the town was primarily rural, and was about 3,000 from the 1840s to the 1930s. In 1930 the census population of Penfield was 3,306, and in 1940 it had increased to 3,774.Historic Perspective of the Town of Penfield: www.penfield.org/media/plan-sec3_histpersp.pdf Penfield's growth as a suburb of Rochester, New York took off after 1950 when the population more than doubled in the next decade (4,851 in 1950 to 12,601 in 1960), doubled again in the next decade (23,732 in 1970) and continued to rise in the following years (30,654 in 2000 census).
24 students graduated from Penfield High School in 1945.Rochester Times Union, June 18, 1945; note: Newspaper references in this article after 1945 from the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle and the Times Union are generally available in the newspaper clipping file maintained by the Local History Department of the Rochester Public Library, Rochester NY The Class of 1946 consisted of 23 graduates.Rochester Times Union June 14, 1946 21 students graduated in 1950.Rochester Times Union June 26, 1950 The Class of 1951 had 27 members.Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, June 26, 1951
In 1948, the number of incoming kindergarten students in Monroe County was double from four years earlier, and was expected to double again by 1952.Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, August 15, 1948, pg. 3B
1948 school consolidation In 1947, school children in the Town of Penfield were served by eleven "common" school districts, each of which had, at one time, its own small grammar school building (often a one room school house), and the Penfield Union Free School District, which operated the high school on Five Mile Line Road. New York State adopted a master plan that year to consolidate small school districts into central schools.For a definition of "common" and "union free" school districts in New York State, and background on the 1947 master plan of consolidation, see the introduction to "School District Organization" at the web site for the New York State Department of Education: www.p12.nysed.gov/mgtserv/sch_dist_org/GuideToReorganizationOfSchoolDistricts.htm
Movement to consolidate the school districts in Penfield began in late 1947, when several petitioned the State Education Department to create a central district.Rochester Democrat and Chronicle November 19, 1947
The Penfield Central School District was created in 1948 by combining five of the common school districts in the Town of Penfield (Districts 2, 3. 5. 7 and 8), an adjourning common school district in Wayne County (Macedon-Walworth Common School District #12) and the Penfield Union Free School District (District 1). The district voters overwhelmingly approved the reorganization on June 24, 1948, by a vote of 407 to 55.Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, June 25, 1948. The new school district contained between 450 and 500 students, which would attend the combined grammar and high school on Five Mile Line Road and the "little Red" school house on Atlantic Avenue and Creek Street in Penfield.Rochester Times Union June 25, 1948. For the school on Atlantic Avenue, see Rochester Times Union, July 22, 1947
Four common school districts in the northern end of Penfield were combined with school districts in Webster and two districts that included parts of the Towns of Ontario and Walworth in Wayne County to create the Webster Central School District.
1949 high school expansion Due to this rapidly increasing population and school consolidation, a further expansion of the high school building on Five Mile Line Drive was approved in 1949.Rochester Times Union December 8, 1949 Five and one half acres of land was acquired in the rear of the existing building.Rochester Democrat and Chronicle Nov. 17, 1949 The expansion added a gymnasium, expanded facilities, and a new 14 room elementary school in the rear of the building. The cost of the expansion was $565,000 (USD).Fairport Herald Mail, November 17, 1949, pg. 8 The expanded school building was designed for 800 students.Rochester NY Democrat and Chronicle Dec. 8, 1949 The old gymnasium was turned into an auditorium and the new addition included a double gymnasium.Rochester Times Union May 24, 1950
The expanded school opened in 1951, but a year later the district was planning to move the first four grades of the elementary students out to allow for more high school students.Rochester Times Union May 12, 1953. District voters approved a new 20 room elementary school building in December 1953Rochester Times Union, December 2, 1953
Annexation of Indian Landing School District The future growth of Penfield High School accelerated rapidly in 1954 with the annexation of the Indian Landing School District (Brighton District #7) to the Penfield Central School District. The Town of Brighton is located immediately south of the City of Rochester and, though smaller than Penfield, experienced suburban growth earlier than Penfield (while the population of Penfield in 1940 was 3,774, Brighton's population that year was 13,132).Down Memory Lane with Brighton Schools; Historical Brighton News Vol. 8, Number 4, Fall 2007 The Indian Landing School District was located at the eastern end of the town, east of East Avenue. The district operated its own grammar school on Landing Road for grades 1 through 8, and graduates went to Brighton High School or Monroe High School in the city of Rochester, with the school district paying the tuition. Before World War II, the Indian Landing school was fairly small, graduating, for example, only nine students from eighth grade in 1936,Rochester Democrat & Chronicle June 18, 1936 p. 9 increasing to 27 graduates by 1941Democrat and Chronicle June 18, 1941, p. 24 In 1941, Indian Landing School District residents voted to build a new building, at a cost of $190,000.Democrat & Chronicle June 7, 1941, p. 14 Construction was delayed by the war (,Democrat & Chronicle April 22, 1942, p. 13 but authorization for the new school, at 16 class rooms and an anticipated cost of $470,000 was granted by the New York State Education Department in 1946.Democrat and Chronicle July 3, 1946, p. 15 The new elementary school, still standing, opened at 702 Landing Road North, in 1949.Democrat & Chronicle Feb. 8, 1949 p. 15 Nine classrooms were added two years later, yet by 1953 the building was overcrowded again.Democrat & Chronicle Oct. 10-1953, p. 29 Meanwhile, Brighton High School, first opened in 1931, with its current building opening in 1940, was reaching capacity.
In 1954, officials at Brighton School District #1, which operated Brighton High, informed Indian Landing officials that their high school was reaching capacity and could not assure that the high school would accept new Indian Landing students after 1955.Rochester Democrat and Chronicle January 26, 1954 The Indian Landing district had only two alternatives: build their own small high school, which would have been expensive, or be annexed by Penfield Central, located to the east. The merger would significantly increase the student population of the enlarged school district, as the Indian Landing student population (over 800 in 1953 Democrat & Chronicle Sept. 6, 1953, p. 19) was nearly as large as the entire Penfield Central population. The Indian Landing district voted for the annexation in April 1954,Rochester Democrat and Chronicle April 2, 1954 and the voters of Penfield approved the merger three months later.Rochester Democrat and Chronicle July 7, 1954
Following the merger Indian Landing students already attending Brighton High School could continue there, but new graduates of the grammar school would attend Penfield High.Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, April 16, 1954 Penfield school officials supported the merger as it would increase the high school population to a size allowing a larger high school program and more varied curriculum.Fairport Harold Mail, June 17, 1954, letter by John J. HallRochester Democrat and Chronicle, June 3, 1954, comments of Elmer Peck, principal of Penfield High School The addition of the Brighton territory also greatly increased the tax basis of the whole district, as the assessed valuation of the real estate in the Indian Landing School District was $10.5 million (USD), nearly twice that of the pre-annexation Penfield Central District ($5.6 million)