English High School (first) opens.

Originally English Classical School, it is located on the second floor of the Derne Street School near today’s 31 Derne Street. Established by Town Meeting at Faneuil Hall on January 15, 1821, it is the first free, public high school in the U.S. George Emerson is the first headmaster. The school’s purpose is to educate “Young men of the City who are not intended for a collegiate course of study.” Graduates include Allan Rohan Crite, J.P. Morgan, Leonard Nimoy, Louis Sullivan, and Eugene Walcott (Louis Farrakhan). The school moves to a new building (second) on Anderson Street in 1824,* adopts its current name in 1833, moves to a new building on Bedford Street (third) in 1844,* Montgomery Street (fourth) in 1881,* Avenue Louis Pasteur (fifth) in 1954* and (sixth) in 1973,* and McBride Street (seventh) in 1989.* It becomes coeducational in 1972.